Medicine

Dr Pauline Addis, MSc, PhD

Dr Pauline Addis loves good science and good science communication. She obtained her BSc (Hons) from Imperial in 2003 and her MSc from Hartpury University in 2007, for which she was awarded the Dodson & Horrell trophy for top student. She then undertook her PhD at Newcastle University in equine biomechanics, investigating how changing mechanical properties of tendon with age affect horses’ gait. The PhD led to several publications, presentations at international conferences and public engagement events such as Bright Club. During her PhD Pauline gained a deep understanding of anatomy, physiology and how to gain the co-operation of an excitable foal. After graduating in 2012, she stayed at Newcastle, switching from horses to humans, and spent 11 years in the Faculty of Medical Sciences demonstrating the impact of medical research for two iterations of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). In this role, Pauline worked with researchers in areas from fundamental biology to public health, via cancer research, genetics and neuroscience, and therefore has an enviably broad understanding of a massive range of medical research. In 2023 she moved to the NIHR Innovation Observatory at Newcastle University, a national horizon scanning organisation. Here, she specialises in synthesising evidence from a range of sources and presenting it in formats ranging from peer-reviewed journals to Pecha Kucha. Pauline also acts as a peer reviewer from various journals and therefore understands the importance of submitting a clear, concise manuscript.

Dr James Allen, PhD

Dr James Allen is an experienced biochemist who headed a research group in the  Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, UK, from 2006–2011. His  research spanned mitochondria, biophysics, enzymology, parasitology,  microbiology,  bioinorganic chemistry, bioenergetics, evolution, structural biology  and cell biology.  Dr Allen has published over 40 papers in international journals,  most as a principal  author, and has peer reviewed extensively. James took his first  degree in Chemistry  at Oxford then undertook a DPhil, also at Oxford, on the  structure-function relationship of an intricate bacterial respiratory enzyme. He did postdoctoral work on cytochrome assembly in bacteria, before being awarded a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship to investigate mitochondrial biogenesis in trypanosome parasites. Dr Allen’s technical expertise includes a wide range of biochemical, biophysical and genetic approaches, including bacterial and eukaryotic genetics and molecular biology; protein chemistry; protein purification; enzymology; enzyme kinetics (rapid reaction and steady state); absorption and other spectroscopies; protein-protein interaction methods; electrochemistry and bioinformatics.

Dr Paz Etcheverry, MS, PhD

Dr Paz Etcheverry obtained her MS in Food Science and Nutrition from North Carolina State University and her PhD in Food Science and Technology from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. When she was a postdoctoral associate at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX), she focused her research efforts on mineral nutrition, especially on iron bioavailability as iron deficiency is the most prevalent micronutrient deficiency in the world. Paz has published in high-impact journals including the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the Journal of Nutrition, and the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, amongst others. She now focuses on teaching undergraduate- and graduate-level nutrition courses and enjoys being a freelance science editor and nutrition/medical writer. Her areas of expertise include food science, nutrition, public health, and biotechnology.

Dr Shailesh Jain, PhD

Dr Shailesh Jain received his doctoral degree in Molecular Microbiology from the Ulster University, Northern Ireland. After pursuing postdoctoral research for a year at the University of Manchester, UK, Shailesh started his career in the publishing industry. He has published five academic research manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals and has presented at several prestigious conferences. He currently works as a part-time freelance scientific editor, with a focus on editing manuscripts written by authors whose first language is not English. His areas of specialization include Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Genomics, and Proteomics

Dr Arshad Makhdum, MSc, PhD

Dr Arshad Makhdum obtained an undergraduate degree in Applied Chemistry from the University of Greenwich. He went on to earn an MSc and PhD in clinical pharmacology from University College London (UCL). Postdoctoral studies in allergic disease took him to the position of Senior Research Fellow at UCL. Then, he was recruited to the Scripps Institute in San Diego (CA, USA), where he focused on exercise-induced asthma. He also taught physicians and surgeons the basic science underpinning allergic disease at this elite research centre. Dr Makhdum returned to the UK and started a career in academic publishing, reaching the position of Publisher at Elsevier (Oxford, UK) and Senior Editorial Project Executive at Phase II Communications (Surrey, UK).

Dr Makhdum has been a STEM editor and medical writer for two decades. He specializes in editing content from authors whose first language is not English. Dr Makhdum also has considerable expertise in what is required for a manuscript to be accepted in a particular journal. His areas of specialization are internal medicine, surgery, anaesthesia, allergic disease (particularly asthma), clinical pharmacology, physiology, molecular biology, and chemistry. He has been working with OSE since November 2012.

He is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, Member of the British Pharmacological Society, Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, as well as a Member of the European Association of Science Editors, European Medical Writers Association, Medical Journalists Association, and Guild of Health Writers.

Dr Natalie Morris, BM BCh, MSc, PhD

Dr Natalie Morris earned a first class degree in Physiological Sciences at Oxford University, and completed her medical studies as a Clinical Scholar at the same university. She worked as a surgeon for 5 years in the National Health Service, and was awarded Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (England). She has subsequently completed a PhD in clinical epigenetics, with over 50 publications and book chapters. She has edited over 4,000 medical and scientific manuscripts.

Dr Ashley Rivenbark, PhD

Dr. Ashley Rivenbark earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences with double minors in Genetics and Botany from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and then earned a PhD in Toxicology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine studying breast cancer epigenetics. After obtaining her PhD, she further completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center funded by the American Cancer Society that focused on epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation.

She has achieved the Excellence in Science Award from the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) and has published >25 papers, reviews, and book chapters.

She is currently a Project Manager for Climate Finance Solutions, a Contract Grant Editor/Manager for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Freelance Scientific Editor with deep experience in editing research papers, grant applications, and texts for scientists whose first language is not English.

Dr Shalaka Talpade, MBBS

Dr Shalaka Talpade completed her MBBS from the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. Her particular clinical interest was rural health. She has participated in medical camps and government health initiatives for gynaecologic and obstetric health, infectious disease management, malaria and dengue prevention, flood relief and various immunization programs, especially polio prevention. She has been editing full-time since 2007 and has edited well over 500 academic papers for peer-reviewed journals. In 2008, she was certified an Editor in the Life Sciences by the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences, USA. As an in-house editor, she quickly rose through the ranks and was soon reviewing the work of her junior colleagues, developing training materials for in-house and freelance editors, and making recruitment decisions. She is currently interested in medical writing.

Dr Urvi Sheth, BDS

Dr Urvi Sheth obtained her Bachelor of Dental Surgery degree from India. After practicing as a dentist for 5 years, Urvi started her career in the publishing industry. She has 13+ years of experience in academic editing and has helped several authors publish their papers in reputed scientific journals. She currently works as a full-time freelance scientific editor, with a focus on editing manuscripts written by authors whose first language is not English. His areas of specialization include Dentistry, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Internal Medicine, Paediatrics, Surgery, Oncology, and Cardiology.

Dr Richa Joag, PhD

Dr Richa Joag earned her BSc degree in Life Sciences from the University of Mumbai, India, and MSc degree in Zoology from the University of Pune, India. She received her doctoral degree in biology through an international PhD program at the Jagiellonian University in Poland and Exeter University in the UK. Her PhD focused on various aspects of sexual conflict in three arthropod species using the experimental evolution approach and transcriptomics. She has five research publications in peer-reviewed journals. Since 2017, she has been working as a freelance scientific editor and has gained experience in proofreading, editing (copyediting and substantive editing), and formatting scientific manuscripts and dissertations in various areas of life sciences and biomedical science.

Dr Jay Freeman, PhD

Dr Jay Freeman obtained his BSc in Chemistry from York University and his MSc in Advanced Organic Chemistry from the University of East Anglia (UEA). His PhD research on the synthesis of derivatized amino acids and their use in the self-assembly of supramolecular transition-metal structures was conducted at UEA and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. For the next decade, he worked for a Cambridge-based independent drug-discovery company as a medicinal chemist, designing and synthesising kinase and epigenetic inhibitors, and then at University College London on the development of biopolymer-based drug-delivery systems. During this time, he was named as an inventor on a number of patents and co-authored several journal articles.

He has been a full-time Freelance Science Editor and Writer for almost ten years, during which time he has edited around 1500 papers – several hundred of which have been for OSE – on almost every aspect of the chemical sciences. However, he enjoys new challenges and always seizes opportunities to edit in subject areas beyond his main expertise when they arise, a tendency that has seen his portfolio expand into molecular biology, medicine, physics, biomaterials, cell biology, and even the arts and humanities.

While he has extensive experience in formatting, scientific writing, and figure preparation, his speciality is advising scientists for whom English is a second language and facilitating the publication of their research in high-impact journals.

Dr Laura Flannelly, PhD, MS, BSN

Dr Laura Flannelly received her BSN from Hunter College-Bellevue School of Nursing, and her MS in Community Mental Health Nursing and PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Laura was a faculty member of the University of Hawaii’s Department of Nursing for 15 years and has worked in clinical settings in Hawaii and New York City. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles on nursing education, cognitive psychology, patient self-management, and methodological critiques of research on religion and health. She is the co-author of a book on counselling individuals with post-traumatic stress and a co-editor of a book on research methodology in healthcare. Before joining Oxford Science Editing, Laura worked for five years as a freelance editor with another company editing manuscripts on psychology and psychosocial healthcare authored by non-native English speakers. Since joining Oxford Science Editing in 2018, she has edited over 250 research manuscripts, reviews, and meta-analyses, for submission to nursing, medical, and psychology journals. The topics of the manuscripts included oncology, aging, stroke, cerebrovascular disease, coronary heart disease, transplantation, diabetes, osteoporosis, and educational methods in medical and nursing training programmes. Recently, she has edited manuscripts on the effects of visual programming on secondary school students, arts therapy for persons with schizotypal disorder, therapists as patients in psychotherapy, and families of children on the autism spectrum.

Hemangi Palav, BTech

Hemangi is a BELS-certified editor with over 13 years of experience in scientific editing. She earned a BTech degree in Biotechnology in 2008. As a scientific editor, she have extensively worked with authors whose first language is not English. Her areas of expertise include Pharmaceutical Sciences & Toxicology, Anaesthesiology/Pain Medicine, Oncology, Public Health & Epidemiology, Diabetes/Endocrine Research, and Cardiovascular Medicine. She is also a certified Prince2 Practitioner with extensive experience in managing editorial operations and have a good understanding of the publishing process from both author and journal perspectives.

Shalmali Karmarkar, MSc, ELS

Shalmali Karmarkar (MSc, ELS) completed her Masters in Science (Life Sciences and Biotechnology) from Mumbai University, India. Since 2008, she has been editing academic and medical manuscripts for authors whose first language is not English. In 2015, she was certified as an Editor in Life Sciences by the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS), and she has been working as a full-time freelance editor since then.

Her areas of expertise include general medicine, obstetrics & gynaecology, pediatrics, physiology, nutrition, emergency medicine, and dermatology.