Simon Kolstoe | University of Portsmouth

Biography

My academic interest is in Research Ethics and Integrity, specifically human participant Medical and Defence research. I work closely with the UK's Health Research Authority (NHS) as a Research Ethics Committee (REC) chair and member of the Community Committee, as well as contributing to projects including Think Ethics, Make it Public, the COVID human challenge REC, and the fast track REC pilot. I also work with other UK government departments including the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA, formerly PHE) as chair of the Research Ethics and Governance Group (REGG), and as chair the Ministry of Defence's Research Ethics Committee (MODREC). I was a trustee of the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) between 2022 and 2025, before taking on the role of an Associate Trainer to provide support and expertise to subscriber organisations in research ethics both nationally, and increasingly internationally. I was also the UK adapting author of the first version of the popular Oxford University Press "Research Integrity" online course and have contributed to the UKRIO research integrity online course.

Prior to moving into Bioethics my background was in Biochemistry (PhD, Southampton 2005) with several years as a post-doctoral research fellow in Professor Sir Mark Pepys' group at UCL Medical School where our work on a small molecule depleter of C-reactive protein was published on the front cover of Nature, and a second project developing drugs targeting the serum protein Transthyretin was patented and licensed to the pharmaceutical company GSK. I joined the University of Portsmouth in 2012 as a Senior Fellow, and then Senior Lecturer, in Biochemistry funded by a BBSRC new investigators award. Following further degrees in Philosophy (BA, Open) and Research Ethics (MA, Keele), I moved to a Senior Lectureship in Evidence Based Healthcare in 2017, and then Reader/Associate Professor in Bioethics as of 2021.

Research interests

Research outputs

2026

Induced circular dichroism from the binding of achiral bivalent ligands to transthyretin

Wood, S., Guan, Y., Pitts, J., Gill, R., Kolstoe, S., Jávorfi, T., Hussain, R., Siligardi, G.

1 May 2026, In: Journal of Molecular Recognition. 39, 3, 11p., e70037

Research output: Article

UK Biobank records listed for sale in China: why open data might be the answer

Kolstoe, S.

28 Apr 2026, In: The Conversation

Research output: Article

Alzheimer’s drugs offer little benefit, major review finds – and the reasons go deeper than the science

Kolstoe, S.

21 Apr 2026, In: The Conversation

Research output: Article

2025

A decision-making model for public health authorities in circumstances of potentially high public risk

Dalal, F. N., Kolstoe, S. E., Chow, Y. Y., Dashore, D., Lipman, M., Lillie, P., Padfield, S., Gajraj, R., McGrath, C., Fowler, T., Ibbotson, S. L.

18 May 2025, In: Journal of Public Health Medicine

Research output: Article

Regulatory workshop on standardisation of clinical procedures, endpoints and data robustness of human challenge studies - a stakeholder meeting report

Meln, I., Cnossen, V., Corti, N., Andeweg, A., Baay, M., Chiu, C., Coia, J., Cornely, O., Cox, R. J., Dasyam, D., De Keersmaecker, S. C. J., Deming, M., Waldock, J., Engelhardt, O. G., Guo, M., Haj-Ali Saflo, O., Hensen, A., Jeeninga, R., Kolstoe, S., Krut, O., Kuijper, E. J., Leal, L., Mazur, N., Mohn, K. G. I., Morel, S., Osterhaus, A., Moreira, A. P., Smits, W. K., Sridhar, S., Toomey, D., van Gerven, J., Vehreschild, M. J. G. T., Yarzabal, J. P., Zimmer-Harwood, P., Neels, P., Olesen, O. F., Roestenberg, M., Kamerling, I. M. C.

1 May 2025, In: Biologicals. 90, 10p., 101818

Research output: Article