What it's like to be a clinical academic

At King’s, there are multiple funding opportunities for clinical academics across many health professions and career stages through the KHP Centre for Translational Medicine (CTM). These supported cohorts receive support to ensure they can best navigate this career path from the King’s Clinical Academic Training Office (KCATO).

We spoke to four clinical academics within the Faculty to learn about their unique journey and the inspiration and support that helped inform their choices.

Dr Ryan McNally, King’s Health Partners (KHP) Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Pharmacist

What inspired you to move from being a clinician to a clinical academic?

My transition from clinical practice to clinical academia was driven by a deep curiosity about the underlying mechanisms of hypertension and a desire to improve patient outcomes through innovation. Furthermore, I had a strong passion for pharmacist involvement in clinical research (where pharmacists have historically been underrepresented). As a pharmacist, I often encounter limitations in how we personalise treatment for hypertension, particularly in underserved populations. This frustration sparked my interest in research. 

My PhD allowed me to explore biomarkers that could guide therapy, and I found that by generating evidence, I could impact patient care and enhance patient engagement with treatment. On a more personal level, my drive to pursue a clinical academic career in cardiovascular research was deeply influenced by my father, who lived with heart disease from a young age and sadly passed away from heart failure in 2023. Witnessing his journey firsthand brought the realities of cardiovascular disease into sharp focus for me—not just its clinical complexities, but its emotional and social toll. That experience strengthened my resolve to move beyond the dispensing bench and into research, where I could contribute to prevention strategies and interventions that might change the trajectory for others at risk. It gave my work a very real and personal sense of purpose.

What kind of research are you currently working on?

My current research is supported by a Clinical Research Excellence Fellowship from King’s Health Partners through the Centre for Translational Medicine (CTM) of which I was the only pharmacist awarded in 2024. I'm focusing on precision medicine in hypertension, particularly in biomarker-guided treatment and refining treatment strategies based on individual response. A core strength of my work is its focus on moving beyond conventional ethnicity categories to develop a more nuanced and clinically useful understanding of hypertension. Traditional classifications, such as “Black” or “White” are often too broad and fail to capture the complex interplay of genetic, environmental, and social determinants that influence blood pressure regulation and treatment response.

How do you balance your time between patient care and research?

At present, my clinical time each week is part of a community-based hypertension outreach programme. This allows me to stay closely connected to patient care while maintaining the flexibility needed for my research. The clinic provides an invaluable opportunity to see how the challenges I’m researching play out in real-world settings—whether it’s medication adherence, variability in blood pressure control, or access to personalized care. This regular patient contact keeps my research grounded and ensures it remains clinically relevant. In turn, my research often informs how I engage with patients, particularly around tailored treatment strategies and health education. Luckily my current fellowship allows me to dedicate up to 20% for clinical duties. Balancing both can be demanding, but the synergy between the two is what makes this role so fulfilling.

What are some challenges facing clinical academics people might not realise OR what advice would you give to clinicians wanting to follow this path?

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is navigating a clinical academic pathway as a pharmacist, a route that’s still relatively uncommon compared to medicine. There’s often no clearly defined structure or obvious next step, which can make it feel quite isolating at times. I had to actively seek out mentors, often from outside my immediate discipline, who understood what it takes to build an academic career while maintaining a clinical identity.

My advice to others—especially those from allied health backgrounds—is to not wait for permission. Be proactive in finding opportunities, building networks, and creating your own trajectory. Reach out to people who inspire you, even if they’re outside your profession. And most importantly, stay focused on the question or problem that really motivates you because that’s what will carry you through the uncertainties. The path may be less traditional, but that also gives you space to innovate and shape the field in ways others haven’t.

I now actively support others doing just that through my roles on the British and Irish Hypertension Society Executive Committee and as Chair of the Early Career Researcher Committee, where I’m working to open doors and build clearer pathways for pharmacists and other allied health professionals pursuing research careers.

Dr Alice Beardmore-Gray, KHP CTM Clinical Lecturer in Obstetrics & Gynaecology

What inspired you to move from being a clinician to a clinical academic?

I love both my clinical work and my academic work - I think that working clinically helps us ask better research questions, and also highlights the challenges of real-world implementation; through my academic work, I can help develop evidence that enables us to deliver better care to our patients, with greater impact at a population level, and I find that really rewarding.

What research are you currently working on?

My research is focused around pre-eclampsia, which is one the major causes of maternal death, and stillbirth, particularly in low and middle income countries. Currently, I am trying to understand how we can detect and prevent the longer-term cardio-metabolic complications associated with pre-eclampsia, and developing decision support tools to empower women with pre-eclampsia to make choices about their care, birth, and follow-up, that feel right for them.

How do you balance the clinical and academic components of your job?

It's extremely tough! I am very grateful to have an extremely understanding clinical training programme director, as well as like-minded clinical academic colleagues - being able to share the load, and look to senior mentors for support, has been really helpful.

What is your relationship to the Centre for Translational Medicine? Can you give any advice for researchers/clinical academics applying for grants?

I was delighted to be awarded one of the Centre for Translational Medicine Post-doctoral clinical research excellence fellowships, which is supporting my current work and acting as a critical bridge as I transition from my PhD into the territory of an early-mid career researcher. My advice would be to make sure that you have a really clear understanding of the partners and people you plan to work with, understand what matters to them, and really focus on what is feasible and acceptable - you can gain really valuable information from small feasibility studies that will help you design more robust and meaningful research in the future.

Dr James Sun, KHP CTM Pre-doctoral Clinical Research Excellence Fellow and Specialty Registrar in Hepatology

What inspired you to move from being a clinician to a clinician academic?

Since medical school I have been fascinated by the scientific research that underpins the treatments that we use in clinical practice. I undertook laboratory studentships in my summers and enjoyed testing scientific questions using experiments. As I have gained experience too often there are patients for whom we do not have effective treatments. My main motivation for becoming an academic clinician is to help lead the research that will improve patients’ lives.

Can you tell us about some research you’re currently working on?

I am currently working on a project to identify somatic mutations (genetic changes) in the bile ducts of people with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). Through cutting edge DNA sequencing technology, we can identify somatic mutations in non-cancerous tissues which we believe may contribute to or protect from the disease. I am developing an organoid model to study the impact of the mutations that we identify.

What has your experience been in getting funding for you work?

I am grateful to the Centre for Translational Medicine for funding this 1-year pre-doctoral fellowship which has given me fully protected research time. The in vitro work in the laboratory would not be possible whilst working on a clinical rota. This has enabled me to generate preliminary data and work up an external PhD fellowship application. I have additionally secured a project grant from a national patient charity, PSC Support.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

Sharing the research I am working on with patients is the most satisfying part of my job. I recently took part in a patient information day and thoroughly enjoyed discussing my work with the real experts: the patients and their families.

Eitan Mirvis, KHP and CTM Predoctoral Clinical Research Excellence Fellow and Registrar

What inspired you to move from being a clinician to a clinician academic?

My highlight of medical school was my intercalated BSc in Immunity and Infection where I learnt about how cancers evade detection by the immune system, and conversely, how we can manipulate the immune system to target cancers. It’s the equivalent of an arms race on a molecular level. I found this incredibly compelling and I have wanted to be involved in this field since then! This inspired me to train in Haematology and led me to where I am currently working – Dr Reuben Benjamin’s Cellular Immunotherapy Lab at King’s, which has an excellent reputation for translational research in CAR-T cell therapy.

Can you tell us a bit about some current research you’re working on?

CAR-T cell (chimeric antigen receptor T cell) therapy is a groundbreaking treatment that involves engineering a patient’s T cells with a CAR construct that targets a tumour antigen. CAR-T cell therapy has achieved very impressive responses in patients with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. Nevertheless, patients are still relapsing and myeloma remains incurable. My project, funded by the CTM, is aiming to identify mechanisms of resistance to CAR-T cell therapy in myeloma. I am very pleased to have received funding from Cancer Research UK to pursue a PhD in this area, with the aim of developing novel therapeutic strategies to overcome these resistance pathways.

What does a typical day look like to you?

I have two young children so mornings are always a mad rush! I take them to school twice a week. They spend the whole journey asking Siri questions which it doesn’t usually understand. We are often late, which I blame on the traffic. It is a big achievement when they run through the gates before the bell rings. My lab is at The Rayne Institute in the Denmark Hill campus. My working days are a mixture of planning experiments, wet lab work, analysing data and educational meetings. I meet with my supervisor Dr Benjamin weekly. On the clinical side I do a myeloma clinic once a fortnight.

What advice would you give to people looking to combine clinical work with academic research?

Funding applications are very time-consuming. Start long before you think you need to. Good organisational skills and resilience make a big difference.