Our core team

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Gayathri De Lanerolle is the founder of the DEBM Lab. She is a Researcher and Charted Scientist. 

Her research interests include Women's Health, Chronic conditions and Artificial Intelligence with a special focus on Disease Sequalae and Multimorbidity. 

She has experience in conducting Evidence Syntheses, Epidemiology and Pre-Clinical studies. 

She has significant experience working with both industry sponsored and academic clinical trials of all phases evaluating a variety of investigational medicinal products, medical devices and complex interventions.

She is also an academic supervisor and contributor to a number of national and international research committees.

She is an expert at developing, setting-up, managing and delivering both commercial and non-commercial clinical trials.  

Jian Qing Shi is a Professor in Medical Statistics working on a variety of Global Health Projects. He is a Professor of Medical Statistics in the Department of Statistics and Data Science. Professor Shi is also Director of the Center for Biostatistics, at Southern University of Science and Technology. 

He was a Reader in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics and, Assistant Director of Cloud Computing for Big Data CDT at Newcastle University. He is a former Turing Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute.

His research interests include functional data analysis, missing data and bias analysis and covariance structural analysis. He has had highly impactful publications, including in the Journal of Royal Statistical Society Series B, Journal of American Statistical Association, Biometrika, Biometrics, Biostatistics, Lancet and British Medical Journal (BMJ). He has also published a monograph in Chapman & Hall, CRC ( Gaussian Process Regression Analysis for Functional Data with Choi. T. 2011) in addition to a number of contributions to a variety of academic books.

Peter Phiri, is a Senior Clinical Researcher in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences at the University of Southampton, UK. With over 20 years in the NHS working in varied clinical settings with individuals with severe mental illness. 

He has developed Culturally adapted Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Psychosis  (CaCBTp) as part of his doctorate. Dr Phiri is a British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) Fellow and serves in the National Conference Advisory Group (formerly Scientific Committee). 

Dr Phiri is a Principal investigator on several research studies. He is an expert at developing mental health interventions, set-up, management and delivery of both commercial and non-commercial clinical trials. He is on the editorial board of the CBT Journal and a peer reviewer on several scientific journals. He has published widely and disseminated both at national and international level.

Vikram Talaulikar is a Specialist in Reproductive Medicine at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Hon. Associate Professor in Women’s Health at the University College London.

He graduated in medicine in India in 2003 and completed postgraduate degree in obstetrics and gynaecology in 2007.

He is a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and completed PhD degree at St. George's University of London in 2016.

His clinical interests include reproductive endocrinology, polycystic ovary syndrome, recurrent miscarriage, premature ovarian insufficiency, and menopause.

He is a certified ‘menopause specialist’ by the British Menopause Society. 

He has published widely in Reproductive Medicine and Menopause. He is a member of the British Fertility Society, European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, British Menopause Society, and International Menopause Society.

He runs a busy menopause and PCOS clinic at UCLH and Menopause Clinic London on Harley Street. He is a Principal trainer for FSRH Menopause SS module and a trainer for BMS principles and practice of menopause care programme.

Helen Douglas is a biochemist by training, Helen’s early career research focused on clinical and forensic applications of stable isotope profiling, working as a senior research fellow at the University of Dundee and Queens University Belfast. A former FIRMS Lead Forensic Practitioner and NPIA advisor, Helen shifted direction in 2018 and now works with survivors of complex trauma at Trauma Healing Together, and set up Quercus Counselling in 2024 to support autistic girls and women. 

Her personal experience of a surgical menopause lead her to engage with a variety of hormonal-health advocacy projects in the UK and Nepal. 

Jeremy Van Vlymen is an Epidemiologist and has worked in primary and acute care settings. He has extensive knowledge and experience working with Electronic Healthcare Data in the UK, including the use of clinical informatics methods during his time at University of Surrey, St George's School of Medicine and University of Oxford. Mr Van Vlymen is also experienced with R programming. 

Ramya Palanisamy is an accomplished professional with a background in cancer research and a special interest in women's health. Her academic journey includes a double-masters Master in Cancer, from a preclinical and clinical perspective with a wide range of topics from developing novel therapeutics, impact and correlation between biomarkers and nutrition, cancer biology and epidemiological outcomes. 

She also has expertise in Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, equipping her to use Data Science approaches.

Ramya has extensive experience in both research and healthcare management, working with multidisciplinary teams.

Paul Smyth is an internationally experienced executive leader with a proven track record of building high-performance organisations, scaling premium global brands, and delivering measurable growth across the UK, Europe, Africa and Greater China. He has held senior leadership roles including Global Head of Sales Operations & Network Development at a variety of PLCs.  As the Chief Executive Officer of AuroraOX Discovery Ltd, he brings disciplined execution and strategic partnership development support the translation of DEBM’s evidence-based research and innovation programmes into scalable, commercially sustainable impact.