Dr John Chilton

Associate Head of School (Admissions, Marketing & Recruitment)

I was in the first cohort of students on the Wellcome Trust four year program in neuroscience at Oxford University, where I began my DPhil with Dr Andrew Stoker on the role of receptor tyrosine phosphatases in axon guidance. During this time the group moved to the Institute of Child Health at University College London, to become part of the Neural Development Unit.
I moved to the MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology at King’s College London to join the group of Professor Sarah Guthrie, where I studied the development of the oculomotor system. During this time I was awarded an EMBO short-term fellowship to work in the lab of Dr Alain Chédotal in Paris. I stayed at KCL for a second post-doc, this time with Professor Phillip Gordon-Weeks, working on the growth cone cytoskeleton.
In 2005 I was awarded a RCUK Fellowship in Clinical Neuroscience and Molecular Biology at the newly-founded Peninsula Medical School. From 2011 to 2019 I was part of University of Exeter Medical School before returning to Plymouth in the summer of 2019.
I am passionate about widening participation in science and medicine. In 2006 I created the 'Men in White' science outreach programme which, until 2019, hosted over 2000 pupils from schools across the south west. With a deliberately ironic title, it aimed to dispel stereotypes about researchers such as the myth that all scientists are dull, middle-aged white men (which ironically sums me up). Men in White was used as a case study in an RCUK guide to public engagement and appeared on the BBC, ITV and local radio. In 2013, I was selected as an inaugural Public Engagement Champion in the RCUK-funded Catalyst scheme and continue to speak at a range of science festivals and school events. Now that Men in White have moved to the Great Lab in the Sky, I am developing 'Braingineering' - interactive sessions exploring the mysteries of the brain with school groups and undergraduates.

I am the medical school lead for biochemistry and this is a large part of the teaching I do across our programmes. One of the benefits of having an integrated curriculum is the opportunities to deliver content that overlaps with other areas, particularly where I can use my extensive background in cell biology and neuroscience. I also contribute to wider areas such as Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) and the Student Selected Component. I'm excited to be part of the innovative approaches we are taking to EBL, an example of which is the implementation of the Braingineering activities into the medical curriculum.

My role as Associate Head of School for Admissions, Marketing and Recruitment enables me to pursue my passion for widening access to higher education. This spans running schools events such as Braingineering through to making sure our admissions criteria open up our courses to as many parts of society as possible.

I am co-creator of Wordotomy, a novel educational game for teaching complex terms to healthcare students. Wordotomy has become integral to the year 1 curriculum of Medical School programmes and is being adopted by other Schools in the Faculty of Health. The game is available from the Life Sciences Resource Centre for students to use in their self-directed learning. Wordotomy is sold worldwide and is produced, marketed and distributed by Focus Games, a leading international supplier of educational games.  

I have a passion for art and the visual representation of scientific ideas. I am interested in how principles of graphic design and comic book illustration can be used to explain biomedical concepts, especially molecular and cellular scale phenomena that may be seen as intangible and abstract. Examples of this can be seen on my Twitter feed @axonologyand personal website www.axonology.com

I have been recognised internationally for my contribution to graphical representation of scientific concepts. In 2021, I won the Federation of European Microbiology Societies prize in a global competition for best cartoon on International Microorganism Day. I contribute open-source vector art to scidraw.io a freely accessible international repository of biomedical illustrations. These are images I designed for use in teaching and have been downloaded tens of thousands of times. My artwork has been requested for use around the world as beer labels, tattoos and more scholarly applications such as publication figures.

I am leading the use of custom 3-D printed models in life science education. In collaboration with Dr. Darren Gowers from the University of Portsmouth, I have designed 3-D printed protein models in durable epoxy resin. The models are coloured to match the scheme used in the relevant structural publication, additional key residues important in clinical understanding of protein function are also coloured. The models contain detachable elements, due to embedded mini-magnets, which adds a kinaesthetic learning experience. This project won competitive internal funding from the Medical School (Chilton  et al. ‘Handling tiny components of big concepts: Using 3-D printed molecular models to enhance medical education’) and has been presented internationally. I am leading an ongoing study to investigate the effectiveness of these models in conjunction with interactive Digital Learning Environment resources I have developed, as self-directed learning tools for students. I am collaborating with other discipline leads to design models with wider impact beyond biochemistry in fields such as immunology and microbiology.
During the pandemic I spearheaded and led a Faculty-wide study examining the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on student experience, published in an international journal (Chilton et al. Eur. J. Dent. Edu. 2023). I have built on this work by now mentoring a student-led project examining students’ use of online teaching resources compared to face-to-face methods. This will inform the development of novel curricula which employ blended teaching approaches.

My lab-based research had a longstanding interest in nervous system development with a particular focus on defining the role of the growth cone cytoskeleton in circuit formation. I worked closely with human geneticists to define pathways from genetic changes to the functional effects in development and disease. My work linking the genetic basis of congenital eye movement disorders to underlying embryonic mechanisms was published in Scienceand Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. I have particular expertise in cytoskeletal function and this work has appeared in Nature Cell Biologyand the Journal of Cell Biology. Linking genetic disorders to cell biology underpinned subsequent work on spastic paraplegia and retinitis pigmentosa published in Brainand PLoS Genetics. Latterly I applied the insights and tools from my work on cell and developmental biology to investigate early stages in the pathology of neurodegenerative disease, primarily Alzheimer’s Disease. A growing recognition of the possible similarity in disease mechanisms between dementia and diabetes enabled me to collaborate in new areas and apply tools developed for neurobiology to interrogate beta cell function.

EFSD/Novo Nordisk Programme for Diabetes Research in Europe, proposal led by Dr. C. Beall. ‘The role of astroglial mitochondrial dysfunction in altered neuron-astrocyte signalling during hypoglycaemia in diabetes.’ 01/10/2018 – 31/03/2020 €100,000.
BBSRC ALERT17 named investigator on proposal led by Prof. S. Scholpp BB/R013764/1 ‘A Single Molecule Detection Platform (SMD) for a Leica SP8 TCS to analyse protein-protein interactions in living specimen.’
Fight for Sight PhD studentship, co-supervisors Prof. A. Crosby & Dr. E. Baple. ‘Defining genes and molecular processes underlying two newly identified forms of inherited eye disease’. 01/09/2016-31/08/2019 ~£55,000.
Northcott Devon Medical Foundation. 'Reversing the pathological accumulation of cofilin rods in dementia' 01/08/2017 – 31/07/2018 £5950.
ARUK Network Grant co-applicants: Dr. H. Hardy & Dr. J. Brown ‘Correlating cofilin rod deposition with markers of protein pathology in Alzheimer's Disease'. 02/2017 - 08/2017 £4400.
University of Exeter Medical School internal PhD studentship 'Cytoskeletal regulation of semaphorin signalling to promote spinal neuron regeneration'. 01/10/13 - 31/09/16 ~£60,000.
Northcott Devon Medical Foundation, co-applicants Prof. A. Randall & Dr. F. Tamagnone. 'A novel 3-D culture method for determining the effect of omega-3 fatty acids on human neuronal stem cells.' 01/07/2015 - 30/06/2016 £2800.
BBSRC SW Doctoral Training Program Co-supervisor Dr. I. Jourdain (University of Exeter Biosciences) 'Fundamental role of the exocyst complex in cell shape definition, from simple to complex systems'. 01/09/2015 – 31/08/2019 ~£70,000.
Wellcome Trust/University of Exeter Institutional Strategic Support Fund ‘Calcium sensor proteins in neurodegeneration – are they the solution...or the problem?’ 01/07/12 - 30/11/13 £17,200. 
Northcott Devon Medical Foundation ‘Identification of changes in gene expression mediated by the SIM2 transcription factor and their effect on neuronal development in Down Syndrome.’ 01/06/12 - 31/10/13 £9,100. 
BBSRC Project Grant ‘Interpretation of guidance cues by the actin-binding protein Drebrin to direct collective neuronal migration’ 01/07/11 - 30/06/14 £294,549. 
Wellcome Trust Project Grant ‘Alpha2-chimaerin as a molecular switch which regulates motor axon growth and guidance’ Joint award with Prof. S. Guthrie (KCL; lead applicant) 01/07/10 - 31/06/13 £208,123.
Peninsula Medical School PhD studentship ‘Identifying the basis of the resistance of ocular motor neurons to degeneration in Motor Neuron Disease’ 01/10/10 - 31/09/13 £55,320. 
Northcott Devon Medical Foundation ‘Using one's brain to understand the kidney: an investigation into the role of the actin-binding protein Drebrin in renal podocytes and its involvement in diabetic nephropathy’ 01/04/10 - 31/03/11 £9,700. 
Northcott Devon Medical Foundation ‘Identification of genes causing human eye movement disorders’ 01/11/09 - 31/10/10 £9,600. 
Wellcome Trust Project Grant ‘The Role of Actin-Binding Proteins in Neurons Undergoing Tangential Migration During Embryonic Development’ 01/06/07 - 31/05/10 £162,248. 
BBSRC Public Engagement Award ‘Men in White meet The Fly’ Co-applicant: Dr. K. Gresty (Univ. Plymouth) 01/03/09 - 28/02/10 £3,200. 
Peninsula Medical School PhD studentship ‘The control of motor neuron migration in the oculomotor system’ 01/10/06 - 31/09/09 £53,196. 
Northcott Devon Medical Foundation ‘Neuronal Development and Repair; Role of the Recently Identified Protein Jamip1’ 01/08/06 - 31/07/07 £8,809. 

Personal website http://www.axonology.com/