About

Rebecca received a 1st class BSc (hons) in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of Sheffield and was awarded the Physiological Society prize. She then studied for a PhD at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in London in the field of Molecular Immunology and Pathology and attended the ENII-MUGEN Immunology Summer School. Following this, she undertook a post-doctoral scientist position in the Lymphocyte Signalling and Development department at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms associated with microRNA-155 in B-cell differentiation. She contributed to numerous high impact publications during this time, presented her work and chaired sessions at national conferences. 

Rebecca then transitioned into industry in order to use her knowledge in a more translational setting. She was lead pharmacologist in the research and development of cancer immunotherapies, agents which aim to activate the body's own immune system to fight cancer. She was involved directly in the research and development of cancer immunotherapy drugs for patients. 

Rebecca was selected to present her research at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) conference in the USA, published a first author paper in Clinical Cancer Research Journal and later became an inventor on a patent. She also received multiple internal company wide awards including the Early Career Researcher award (2014) and Global Scientific Breakthrough of the Year award (2016).

During her numerous research posts, Rebecca continued to carry out STEM related outreach which involved scientific engagement in primary and secondary schools and delivering guest lectures in the community and at universities. She was also responsible for the direct supervision of undergraduate, summer, masters and PhD students. Her role included laboratory teaching, writing research proposals and being a member of the review committee to ensure student progress. 

Since joining Sheffield Hallam, Rebecca became a Principal Investigator in Cancer Immunology within the Biomolecular Sciences Research Centre (BMRC) and supervises PhD and MSc students. Rebecca was included in REF 2021. 

Teaching

Rebecca is part of the course team for the newly appointed degree apprenticeship program for BSc Healthcare Science, which focuses on both academic and work-based learning of scientific principles within a healthcare context. Building on her previous experience working in a translational and patient-focused field, she leads the 'Fundamentals of Healthcare Science' and the 'Scientific Basis of Healthcare Science' modules of this program.

Rebecca also teaches in the general areas of immunology and pathology on numerous undergraduate courses. Key modules include 'Immunology & Microbiology', with focus on the theory of innate and adaptive immunity and 'Essential Biosciences for Nursing Practice' which covers the key aspects of blood science and its application in a more medical context. Key practical sessions include 'Cellular Pathology' and 'Immunology' where she teaches the theory and application of fundamental laboratory techniques such as immunohistochemistry, histology and flow cytometry. Rebecca has also contributed to the design and implementation of the MSc Cancer Biology course and also now leads the Translational Research module of this course.

Rebecca also gives professional development lectures to undergraduate and masters students. These lectures aim to improve key skills such as organisation and time management and highlight how they are useful for future employment.

Research

• Biomolecular Sciences Research Centre
• Industry and Innovation Research Institute

Since joining Sheffield Hallam, Rebecca has been selected to attend a national sandpit event in Oxford which was ran by Cancer Research UK and Arthritis Research UK and she has also successfully received an Early Career Researcher fellowship. She has been invited to present her research at international meetings.

Molecular mechanisms of B-cell differentiation and antibody production
B-cells are an essential part of the humoral immune response and function mainly by differentiating into antibody secreting plasma cells after antigenic stimulation via their B-cell receptor. This differentiation is co-ordinated by a specific network of transcription factors and microRNAs. In a recent publication, Rebecca led the investigation into the requirement of microRNA-155 to drive the differentiation of B-cell blasts into plasmablasts and germinal centre B cells by regulation of proliferation and survival mechanisms [Arbore, Henley et al., 2019]. Rebecca presented this research externally at the European Congress for Immunology and was an invited speaker at the B-cell Winter Immunology School in Germany. This important work provided new insight into the immunological response to vaccination and the mechanisms underlying the survival and proliferation of B-cell populations. Rebecca's research aims to further explore this network in B-cell subpopulations.

https://www.shu.ac.uk/biomolecular-sciences-research-centre/news/news-listing-page/lecturer-rebecca-leyland-at-b-cells-and-beyond

Immune response to cancer
The process whereby cancer cells are able to bypass being destroyed by our own body's immune system is known as Cancer Immuno-editing. Cancer immuno-editing takes place in three phases: elimination, equilibrium and escape. Rebecca's research interests involve identifying the mechanisms which contribute to these three processes of Cancer immuno-editing and further elucidating the immuno-inhibitory biomarkers which are expressed by tumour cells at different stages of disease.

Interdisciplinary immunology research
Rebecca also carries out interdisciplinary immunology research in different disease settings including graft versus host disease and COVID-19.

• Industry and Innovation Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University 
  

• British Society for Immunology 
  

• Marie Sklowdowska Curie/Doctoral Training Alliance 
  

• Biomolecular Sciences Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University 
   

Publications

Other activities

Rebecca is a member of the Athena SWAN Committee within the Bioscience department.

Outside of Sheffield Hallam Rebecca is a scientific reviewer for several reputable journals. She has recently been invited to be a Cancer Immunology Guest Editor for Jove journal. 

Rebecca has also been a scientific reviewer for project grants from the Medical Research Council and the Israel Science Foundation. In addition she is a member of the Northern Immunology Group and Yorkshire Immunology Group where she is involved in organising regional immunology conferences.
 

Postgraduate supervision

Katie Hudson - Elucidating the intrinsic role of immuno-inhibitory biomarkers in human cancers (DoS)
David Pawson - The role of tolerogenic cells in allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (DoS)
Cristiana Matos - Nanoparticle-mediated enhancement of radiotherapy responses in 3D cell culture models (co-supervisor)
Noel Collins - HLA matching to donor selection to improve paediatric bone marrow transplant outcome (co-supervisor)