NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Geriatric Medicine

Harnish graduated in Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from the University of Southampton. His SHO training took place in London and at Southampton General Hospital. He joined the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit in 2007 and attained his PhD in 2010 under the supervision of Professor Avan Aihie Sayer.

His doctoral research was titled Life Course Influences on Skeletal Muscle Morphology, Mass and Function in Community Dwelling Older Men. The main focus of his work was elucidating mechanisms underlying the developmental origins of sarcopenia, the loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength and or function with age. His study involved the detailed characterisation of muscle mass as well as function, and also included the study of muscle at the cellular level in tissue obtained through percutaneous biopsy. His post-doctoral work as a Clinical Lecturer is on nutrition, lifestyle, epigenetics and sarcopenia in older people in a study funded by the NIHR Nutrition Biomedical Research Centre, Southampton General Hospital in which he is the principal investigator.

Harnish was a past trainee representative of the British Geriatric Society (BGS) Academic and Research committee and currently sits on the BGS Education and Training Committee. His teaching commitment includes seminars on Sarcopenia and Frailty and he leads on the undergraduate student selected module ‘Appraising Medical Evidence’ within the Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton.

Harnish's recent book chapter, 'Percutaneous Muscle Biopsy: History, Methods and Acceptability', written with Cyrus Cooper and Avan Aihie Sayer is available to download here

hp@mrc.soton.ac.uk

Related Publications: 2012  Patel HP;Jameson KA;Syddall HE;Martin HJ;Stewart CE;Cooper C;Sayer AA. Developmental influences, muscle morphology, and sarcopenia in community-dwelling older men. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2012; 67:82-87.  Stevens PJ;Syddall HE;Patel HP;Martin HJ;Cooper C;Aihie SA. Is Grip Strength a Good Marker of Physical Performance among Community-Dwelling Older People?. J Nutr Health Aging 2012; 16:769-774. 2011  Patel H;Syddall HE;Martin HJ;Cooper C;Stewart C;Sayer AA. The feasibility and acceptability of muscle biopsy in epidemiological studies: findings from the Hertfordshire sarcopenia study (HSS). J Nutr Health Aging 2011; 15:10-15.  Roberts HC;Denison HJ;Martin HJ;Patel HP;Syddall H;Cooper C;Sayer AA. A review of the measurement of grip strength in clinical and epidemiological studies: towards a standardised approach. Age and Ageing 2011; 40:423-429. 2010  Patel HP;Syddall HE;Martin HJ;Stewart CE;Cooper C;Sayer AA. Hertfordshire sarcopenia study: design and methods. BMC Geriatr 2010; 10:43-.  Sayer AA;Stewart C;Patel H;Cooper C. The developmental origins of sarcopenia: from epidemiological evidence to underlying mechanisms. Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 2010; 1(3):150-157. 2008  Sayer AA;Syddall H;Martin H;Patel H;Baylis D;Cooper C. The developmental origins of sarcopenia. J Nutr Health Aging 2008; 12:427-432.