Institute of Continuing Education (ICE)
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Dr Tom Monie is the Assistant Director of Academic Centres (Academic) and an ICE Teaching Officer and the Academic Director for STEM (Biological) Sciences. He is a protein biochemist with a long-standing interest in infection, immunity and genetics. Tom is a Fellow of Christ's College, University of Cambridge, where he also acts as a Tutor and the Director of Studies in Part 1A Biological Natural Sciences.
Tom oversees and teaches a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the biological and medical sciences. These include courses on the Certificate in Genetics, the Diploma in Evolutionary Biology, Infection and Immunity, Medical Education, and Genomic Medicine amongst others. Tom's extensive experience in teaching within the University includes undergraduate supervisions, practical classes and lectures - he currently delivers the first year "Genes in Action" course for the Biology of Cells, along with a wide-range of postgraduate teaching and the education of adult and professional learners. His research publication topics have included topics such as cat allergy- which was a global media story- Crohn's Disease, inherited auto-inflammatory genetic diseases, species variation in immunity and inflammation, and protein function in the immune system.
Many students have benefitted from his involvement in a wide range of teaching activities targeted at the provisions of subject-specific and transferable skills for graduate students. Tom is a firm believer that learning should be fun, that student participation is central to this process, and that successful teaching requires responsiveness to the needs of the students. He aims to instil these elements into his teaching and engagement activities.
Tom’s long standing interests in the biology of diseases and protein biochemistry are successfully combined through his research investigating how the innate immune system detects and responds to danger. He held a prestigious Wellcome Trust Fellowship from 2008 to 2014 to study two members, NOD1 and NOD2, of the NLR family of cytoplasmic immune receptors.
Tom’s current research focuses on studying protein:protein interactions to work out how innate immune signalling pathways function. This includes continuing to work out the mechanism by which NOD1 and NOD2 detect and respond to danger, and how mutations in the NOD2 protein lead to the development of autoinflammatory conditions such as Crohn’s Disease and Blau Syndrome.
Tom uses a range of experimental approaches in his research including computational modelling of protein structure to work out the impact of mutations on their structure and function.
Member of the Biochemical Society
Member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Biological Chemistry
Editorial Board Member of Molecular Innate Immunity, Frontiers in Immunology
Editorial Board Member of Inflammation, Frontiers in Immunology
