Our Board of Trustees

Victoria is Director of Funding and Impact at Barts Charity and has worked in medical and healthcare strategy and management for over 18 years prior, holding roles including Head of Science Strategy Delivery at the Wellcome Trust, Head of Research at Diabetes UK and Senior Manager within the NIHR Comprehensive Research Network. Prior to this specialism Victoria undertook a PhD in biochemistry focused on cellular signalling pathways.

"Millions of people are affected by digestive conditions; my motivation to be a Trustee for Guts UK simply comes down to them and the valuable role Guts UK can play in providing expert information, raising awareness and funding research about the gut to support them and their loved ones."

Linda is a Registered Nutritionist (ANutr), with a background as a healthcare business development professional working in both the pharmaceutical industry at GlaxoSmithKline, and the medical research charity sector at LifeArc, leading people and teams driving collaborations and partnerships to deliver organisational strategy. She has a Ph.D. in molecular immunology and a BSc in Genetics and she has a strong interest in nutrition, gut health and disease.

She has chosen to volunteer her time and energy with Guts UK as Business Development trustee as she believes that this is a way to use her professional experience and knowledge to advance support and care for people living with digestive conditions.

Christine Norton PhD MA RN MBE is Professor of Clinical Nursing Research at King’s College London. She was also for many years Nurse Consultant at St Mark’s Hospital London, responsible for a service for people with a variety of bowel symptoms. Her research focuses on improving symptoms and quality of life for people with long term bowel conditions.

"I am passionate about enabling people to live well despite a bowel which does not always work as they would wish. For me, contributing as a Trustee to Guts UK to help provide information for people and funding ground breaking research is the best way I can think of to achieve this."

Chris is Professor of Gastroenterology at University of Liverpool and Honorary Consultant Gastroenterologist at Royal Liverpool Hospital.

After graduating from University of Birmingham (MBChB 1985) and undertook postgraduate training in gastroenterology. Chris was awarded MD by University of Leicester, in 1993, for the study of the epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease in South Asian migrants. He then undertook a BDF (now GUTSUK) funded research fellowship at Harvard for 2 years, with Prof Rick Blumberg, studying the mucosal immunology of inflammatory bowel disease. On his return to UK, Chris was appointed Department of Medicine at University of Bristol and later promoted Professor of Gastroenterology and to clinical lead for gastroenterology, and later for inflammatory bowel diseases, at University Hospital Bristol NHS Foundation Trust. In 2011, he was appointed Professor of Gastroenterology at University of Liverpool. He has a major research interest in the study of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for disease diagnosis, funded by GUTSUK, CCUK, Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK. He has published >170 original papers and 450 reviews in peer-reviewed manuscripts, he has edited 5 textbooks and contributed to many others. He was Vice Chair of the Clinical Advisor’s Committee of Crohn’s and Colitis UK (NACC) and past-chair of the IBD Committee of the BSG.

Chris joined Guts UK as a Trustee in 2022. Chris is passionate about helping patients through advice and education via the Charity. As his US fellowship and several later studies were funded by Guts UK, Chris is keen to give back to the Charity.

Debbie Shawcross is a Clinician Scientist and Professor of Hepatology and Chronic Liver Failure at the Institute of Liver Studies and James Black Centre, King’s College London. She works as a Consultant Hepatologist on the King’s Liver Unit with a specialist interest in hepatic encephalopathy, liver failure syndromes and the complications of cirrhosis. She joined the EASL [European Association for the Study of the Liver] Scientific Committee and Governing Board in October 2022, was elected Vice Secretary General of EASL in June 2023 and takes over as Secretary General in May 2025. She is an advocate for high quality education and training in gastroenterology and hepatology having been a Health Education England London Gastroenterology Training Programme Director for 10 years, British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) Mentor and an active member of the BSG Supporting Women in Gastroenterology.

Her research programme characterises the immunobiology of chronic liver failure focusing specifically on the gut-liver-brain axis in the context of the gut microbiome as a driver of immune dysfunction, inflammation and encephalopathy. She is leading the field in clinical trials of faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) in Europe and is Chief Investigator of the NIHR-funded EME UK multicentre randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial of FMT (capsules) [PROMISE Trial] in patients with metabolic-associated and alcohol-related cirrhosis.

Debbie is the Chair of the British Society of Gastroenteroloy (BSG) Research Committee and therefore has an ex-officio seat on the Guts UK Board of Trustees where her extensive research experience, and her specialism in the liver contribute perfectly to the knowledge and leadership on our Board.

Miranda is a Senior Consultant Dietitian in Gastroenterology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, London and has an adjunct appointment as Professor of Dietetics in Gastroenterology at King’s College London. Professor Lomer qualified as a dietitian in 1990 and in 2002 she completed a PhD on diet and Crohn’s disease. Professor Lomer is Editor of a book entitled Advanced Nutrition and Dietetics in Gastroenterology and in 2016, she was awarded an MBE for services to dietetics and gastroenterology.

Her research interests include the nutritional management of function bowel disorders (gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and irritable bowel syndrome) and inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and orofacial granulomatosis) She has research skills in dietary assessment and nutritional management of these conditions and has expertise in conducting national audits, developing national guidelines and conducting multi-centre clinical trials.

Miranda has been a Guts UK trustee since 2019 because she is passionate about providing high quality evidence based information on diet and nutrition for people with gut issues. Her goal is to ensure that everyone has access to the latest information available and Guts UK supports this ethos.

Dr Conor McCann is a principal investigator at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. His research interests include the development and physiology of the gastrointestinal tract in both normal and pathophysiological conditions.

He obtained his PhD at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2010 working under the supervision of Prof. Kenton Sanders where he investigated “Transplantation of Interstitial cells of Cajal in the gut.” In 2011 he moved to the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health to investigate the transplantation of enteric neural stem cells as a mechanism of restoring motility in several mouse models of disease and the functional characterization of the developing enteric nervous system in the human foetal colon. More recently, having established an independent group at UCL, this work has extended to investigate the derivation and functional development of the gut neuromusculature and hPSC- derived strategies for the treatment of gut motility disorders.

"I volunteer as Digital Trustee for Guts UK to help make gut health more accessible to all. Our charity has fantastic energy, a community who needs our support and fantastic resources to offer. As a trustee, I'm keen to help provide support and guidance to help us build on our fantastic foundations as a charity and see us reach more people to help them get to grips with guts. Gut health is so crucial in our day to day lives and Guts UK has a huge responsibility to ensure we're providing the right level of awareness and support to our community as well as raising funds for more research into our guts."

Ravinder is currently the Senior Vice-President, Company Secretary and General Counsel of Zealand Pharma A/S a Danish based biotech specializing in therapeutic peptides. Ravinder brings international experience in intellectual property law in the life science sector, with expertise in litigation, licensing, mergers, and acquisitions. Additionally, he has experience with financing, securitization, and capital markets. He also serves as a company secretary. Prior to his in-house roles as Director of Intellectual Property at Polpharma SA and Actavis Group Hf, he worked for 10 years in private practice in London, practicing contentious and non-contentious intellectual property law. He has an undergraduate degree (BSc Hons) in Pharmacology from the University of Leeds, was called to the Bar in 1992 (Middle Temple) and requalified as a solicitor in 2002 (England & Wales). He graduated from the Copenhagen School of Business with an executive MBA in 2021.

Ravinder choose to volunteer for Guts UK to serve a long standing interest in research and development; how it can alleviate suffering and improve patients’ lives and a strong desire to help people get to the information that they need to make important decisions about this misunderstood disease area.