Who is Dr. Melita Irving? Only one of the best and brightest minds on the MCDS-Therapy team!
Dr. Melita Irving is the clinical geneticist who is running the MCDS-Therapy clinical trial site at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, specifically the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, down in London.
Melita and her team identify potential MCDS trial participants, recruit patients for the trail, carry out study visits, safely monitor the patients and collect and report the trial data. She also acts as an extension of her patients’ family, but she’ll tell you more about that in her interview below!
Dr. Melita Irving’s Interview
Dr. Melita Irving sat down with Findacure‘s Marketing and Engagement Manager, Blayne Baker, over Zoom to discuss her background and role within MCDS-Therapy, as well as the rare disease and skeletal dysplasia fields as a whole.
Melita’s insightful interview covers a range of topics, so feel free to fast forward to the discussions that you want to hear most. To make it as easy as possible, we’ve time stamped the start of each conversation below and in our video. Happy listening!
Interview Time Stamps
- 00:00 – Intro
- 00:24 -Who Dr. Melita Irving is and her role within the MCDS Team
- 02:16 – On her book entitled, “The Human DNA Manual: Understanding Your Genetic Code”
- 06:22 – On how her background in paediatrics has helped her
- 07:39 – On her hospital’s clinical research facility that’s been designed especially for children
- 08:17 – On how her hospital cares for the parents of children participating in clinical trials
- 09:03 – On what she dreamed of being when she grew up
- 10:21 – On her medical school years and her experience partaking in a programme down in Australia
- 11:34 – On what made her say yes to joining the MCDS Team so quickly
- 13:53 – On realising that Carbamazepine (CBZ) can be repurposed as a potential treatment for MCDS
- 15:05 – On a patient interaction that stuck with her long after the conversation ended
- 16:58 – On the clinical trial sibling experience
- 19:33 -On what the MCDS clinical trial has taught her thus far
- 21:52 – On driving research through the non-commercial sector
- 23:42 – On how COVID impacted the MCDS clinical trial
- 28:12 – On the facts or challenges that tend to get overlooked in clinical trials and rare disease
- 30:16 – On her hopes for the MCDS clinical trial and treating skeletal dysplasia as a whole
- 32:24 – On her personal ambitions
- 33:37 – On her hobbies and pastimes
- 35:14 – Her final thoughts!
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