Dr Andy Conway Morris
MB ChB (hons), BSc (hons), PhD, MRCP, FRCA, FFICM
Official Fellow
Associate Professor of Anaesthesia; Honorary Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine
Biography
Dr Conway Morris trained at the University of Glasgow before moving to Edinburgh to undertake postgraduate training in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine. He undertook his PhD at the University of Edinburgh under the supervision of Professors John Simpson and Timothy Walsh, focusing on neutrophil function in patients with the severe infection, Ventilator-Associated pneumonia. Following post-doctoral research in Edinburgh he moved to Cambridge to complete his clinical training and undertake further post-doctoral work. He was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship followed by an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship before being appointed Associate Professor in November 2024.
Teaching Interests
Subject: Medicine
Dr Conway Morris supervises part 1B Biology of Disease at Emma. He lectures on the part II Immunology course and supervises post-graduate students at doctoral and master's level.
He teaches post-graduate healthcare professionals working in intensive care, directing learning pathways in 'Sepsis, Severe Infections and Stewardship' and 'research in Intensive Care' for the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.
Research
Dr Conway Morris's research focuses on the immune system in critically ill patients and how it responds to infections. During critical illness the body’s organ systems fail and the immune system is no different, but as a distributed network it’s much harder to monitor. He works on the factors that drive immune failure in critically ill patients, and how this influences the response to infections. His work spans translational biology, diagnostic development and novel treatments for immune dysfunction.
Sepsis (where an infection leads to organ failure) kills 11 million people a year worldwide, with pneumonia being the commonest cause. The immune system plays a key role in the development of sepsis and critical illness (where organ systems need external support such as ventilators or kidney machines). In seeking to understand the mechanisms that underpin the immune system’s responses to sepsis and severe infections, he aims to develop new approaches to treatment and diagnosis.
He has developed and tested rapid diagnostic tests for pneumonia, based on immune signatures and pathogen detection to improve targeting of antibiotics. He has also identified drugs that target the immune system and restore normal functioning that are being tested in clinical trials. The ultimate aim of his work is to reduce the mortality and morbidity burden of sepsis and severe infections, and improve antibiotic use to reduce resistance.