Biography
Dr Thomas Eykyn read undergraduate chemistry (MChem) at the University of Oxford and subsequently carried out his PhD studies in solution state NMR methodology at the Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, with Geoffrey Bodenhausen during which he undertook a 2-year secondment at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. He developed novel applications using cross-polarization for magnetization transfer in isotopically labelled spin-systems that display differential relaxation processes.
During a postdoc at the University of Sydney with Philip Kuchel, he developed novel NMR applications for biophysical studies of red blood cells including anisotropic diffusion and metabolic studies in living cells. During a subsequent postdoc at the Institute of Cancer Research, he was part of the team developing hyperpolarized 129Xe techniques and subsequently led the program of work to develop hyperpolarized 13C metabolic imaging in cancer using dynamic nuclear polarisation (DNP) with Martin Leach. This resulted in several world-first applications performing in cell measurements of pyruvate-lactate metabolism in real-time and gaining a detailed understanding of the kinetics and its modulation by therapeutics.
Since being appointed as a Lecturer in the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences at King’s, he has further developed NMR spectroscopic, hyperpolarized MRI and metabolomic techniques for elucidating metabolic remodelling in the heart, brain, liver as well as cancer. He has a keen interest in NMR methodology, pulse sequence design, multinuclear NMR, and the analysis of kinetic processes including enzyme-mediated reactions and metabolic processes.
He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Centre for Biomolecular Spectroscopy, a committee member on the steering group for the re-establishment of the MSci Chemistry Undergraduate programme at King’s, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, manager for the 9.4T NMR/MRI facility in Biomedical Engineering, Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC), Member of the Institute of Physics (MInstP).
He has supervised five PhD projects to completion, three current and a number of MSc/MRes projects, as well as acting as external examiner, reviewer for grant funding panels and peer reviewer for a number of journals.