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Professor Rami J Salib

BMedSci, BMBS, FRCSI (Otol), FRCS (Otol), DLO, FRCS (ORL-HNS), PhD

Training and education

  • BMedSci in Physiology & Pharmacology (Hons.), University of Nottingham Medical School,1992
  • BM, BS (Hons.), University of Nottingham Medical School, 1994
  • DLO, The Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1998
  • FRCSI (Otol), The Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, 1998
  • FRCS (Otol), The Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1999
  • PhD, University of Southampton, 2005
  • FRCS (ORL-HNS), The Royal College of Surgeons of England, 2006

Experience

Professor Salib joined the Trust in May 2009 as an Honorary Consultant Ear, Nose & Throat Surgeon. Professor Salib completed higher specialist surgical training in Otorhinolaryngology/Head & Neck surgery in the Wessex Deanery (2001 to 2008), and gained his certificate of completion of training (CCT) in October 2008. He then undertook a subspecialist overseas fellowship in Rhinology and Anterior Skull Base surgery at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam in 2008.

Professor Salib is the current inaugural Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery and Professor of Rhinology at the University of Southampton. He has a subspecialist interest in Rhinology (diseases and surgery for diseases of the nose and sinuses), with particular expertise in treatment and surgery for resistant chronic rhinosinusitis and complex frontal sinus disease. He is a faculty member on the internationally renowned Wessex advanced endoscopic sinus surgery course held annually in Southampton.

Key achievements

  • PhD, University of Southampton, 2005
  • Hunterian Professorship of Surgery, Royal College of Surgeons of England, 2006
  • Clinical Senior Lectureship Award - Higher Education Funding Council for England, 2008.
  • Establishment of Southampton Upper Airway Research Group, 2009.
  • Inaugural Chair of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery and Professor of Rhinology, 2025.

Key awards and prizes

  • Louis Alexander Royal College of Surgeons of England Research Fellowship, 2001
  • Frances and Augustus Newman Foundation two-year Royal College of Surgeons of England Research Fellowship, 2002
  • The Royal Society of Medicine GlaxoSmithKline Fellowship, 2004 to 2005
  • Royal College of Surgeons of England Hunterian Professor of Surgery, 2006
  • Clinical Senior Lectureship Award – Higher Education Funding Council for England, 2008

Research

Undergraduate, postgraduate and future research

Professor Salib undertook undergraduate research at the department of physiology and pharmacology in the University of Nottingham Medical School, with the aim of developing and validating an assay to measure sodium dependent high affinity choline uptake (SDHACU) in rat synaptosomes; and then to use this assay in order to investigate the effects of various neuropeptides, namely thyrotrophin releasing hormone (TRH) on the SDHACU system. The results suggested a mechanism by which endogenous TRH altered the release and turnover of acetylcholine from central nervous system neurones was via modulation of choline uptake.

The work culminated in the award of a BMedSci (Hons.) in 1992. The Royal College of Surgeons of England funded Professor Salib for three years (2001 to 2004) to carry out postgraduate basic science research into the mechanisms of epithelial activation and mast cell chemotaxis in allergic rhinitis. This research based at the sub-division of respiratory cell and molecular biology of the Infection, Inflammation and Immunity Division of the School of Medicine in the University of Southampton. This work has culminated in the award of a PhD in July 2005.

Professor Salib leads the Southampton Upper Airway Research Group which he established in 2009. The Group’s current research program is broadly focused in 3 areas:

1- Elucidation of mechanisms of disease resistance in Staphylococcus aureus-mediated chronic rhinosinusitis, in particular the role of intracellular bacterial localisation and virulence factors in mediating disease chronicity and resistance to antibiotics. The Group is also currently testing potential new antimicrobial therapies such as Simvastatin for repurposing as topical anti-S. aureus treatments in resistant chronic rhinosinusitis disease.

2- Use of the nose to develop novel biomarkers to enable early detection and monitoring of dementia (collaboration with the Carare Research Group).

3- Characterisation of the sinonasal microbiome and its diversity in adult Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia, and its impact on upper airway disease severity (collaboration with the PCD Group).

Publications

Further information on Professor Salib’s research and publications is available on the University of Southampton website https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5wzp6f/professor-rami-salib

Contact

To contact Professor Salib via his secretary Nikki Foote on 023 8120 2928 or email Nikki.Foote@uhs.nhs.uk