Rachel Haywood    scientist, writer, artist and singer  
     
       
             
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Science news - My recent paper shows that the tanning pigment melanin is not always a completely
effective screen against (UVA in) sunlight damage to skin cells.



From 2004 – 2013 I was a Group leader in Free Radical Photobiology and Cancer at the RAFT Institute of Plastic Surgery in Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood (Middlesex). I remain an 'Honorary Principal Investigator at RAFT'.

At RAFT I initiated and directed research into Ultraviolet-A (UVA) oxidative stress mechanisms in skin and its cellular and molecular components, to understand photodamage by this part of the UV spectrum and to study the relation of free-radical-damage to the induction of DNA damage and skin cancer, particularly melanoma. Free-radical-damage was studied using electron-spin-resonance spectroscopy. Please click the following link (ESR) to see the impact of my work at RAFT. A component to the research was to measure the effectiveness of sunscreens and the natural sunscreen melanin in protecting skin against free radical damage.

I also briefly joined the Vascular Physiology unit at UCL in an international research programme to investigate free radicals and oxidative stress in relation to heart disease (2011-2012).


There are 21 publications resulting from my scientific research work.     Linked In 

Nick Kassouf, Christopher W.M. Kay, Arsen Volkov, Shih-Chieh Chiang, Mark A. Birch-Machine, Sherif F. El-Khamisy, Rachel M. Haywood. Free Radical Biology and Medicine 126 (2018) 153–165. UVA-induced carbon-centred radicals in lightly pigmented cells detected using ESR spectroscopy.

Chiang SC, Meagher M, Kassouf N, Hafezparast M, McKinnon PJ, Haywood R and El-Khamisy SF. Mitochondrial protein-linked DNA breaks perturb mitochondrial gene transcription and trigger free radical-induced DNA damage. Sci Adv. 2017 Apr 28;3(4):e1602506. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1602506. eCollection 2017 Apr

R Haywood Encyclopedia of Biophysics pp. 2447 – 2453. Spin trapping: Theory and Applications.

O'Neill F, McLoughlin E, Riwanto M, Manz J, Adler A, Sutill E, Khan T, Haywood R, Kay CW, D'Aiuto F, Charakida M, Landmesser U, Deanfield J. Reproducibility and biological variability of HDL's vascular functional assays, Atherosclerosis. 2015, 241:588-94.

Haywood R, Volkov A, Andrady C, Sayer R. Measuring sunscreen protection against solar-simulated radiation-induced structural radical damage to skin using ESR/spin trapping; development of an ex vivo test method.Free Radic Res. 2012, 46:265-75.

Swalwell H, Latimer J, Haywood RM, Birch-Machin MA.Investigating the role of melanin in UVA/UVB- and hydrogen peroxide-induced cellular and mitochondrial DNA damage in human melanoma cells. Free Radic Biol Med. 2012;52:626-34.

Haywood, R., Andrady, C., Kassouf, N., and Sheppard, N. Intensity-dependent Direct Solar radiation- and UVA-induced Radical Damage to Human Skin and DNA, Lipids and Proteins. Photochemistry and Photobiology 2011; 87: 117-130.

Haywood R, Lee M, Andrady C. Comparable photoreactivity of hair melanosomes, eu- and phaeomelanins at low concentrations: low melanin a risk factor for UVA damage and melanoma? Photochemistry and Photobiology (Symposium-in-Print) 2008; 84: 572-581.

Haywood R, Lee M, Rogge F. Protein, lipid and DNA radicals to measure skin UVA damage and modulation by melanin. Free Radical Biology and Medicine 2008; 44: 990-1000.


Haywood, R (2006) Relevance of sunscreen application method, visible light and sunlight intensity to free-radical protection afforded by sunscreens Photochemistry and Photobiology 82: 1123-1131.

Haywood R.M, Lee M and Linge C (2006). Synthetic melanin is a model for soluble natural eumelanin in UVA-photosensitised superoxide production J Photochem Photobiol B: Biology 82, 224-235.

Haywood R and Linge C (2004). An experimental and theoretical model for solar UVA-irradiation of soluble eumelanin: towards modelling UVA-photoreactions in the melanosome? J Photochem Photobiol B: Biology. 76 (2004) 19 – 32.

Haywood, R., and C. Linge (2004). Differences in production of melanin radicals by 694 nm ruby laser- and UVA irradiation. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine 35: 77 – 83.

Haywood, R., P. Wardman, R. Sanders and C. Linge (2003) Sunscreens inadequately protect against ultraviolet-A-induced free radicals in skin: Implications for skin ageing and melanoma? J Invest. Dermatol. 121, 862-868.


Haywood, R.M.,Wardman, P., Gault, D.T., and C. Linge (1999). Ruby Laser Irradiation (694nm) of Human Skin Biopsies: Assessment by ESR Spectroscopy of Free-radical Production and Oxidative Stress during Laser Depilation. Photochemistry and Photobiology, 1999, 70, 348-352.

Haywood, R.M., Claxson, A.W.D., Hawkes, G.E., Richardson, D.P., Naughton, D.P., Coumbarides, G J., Hawkes, G E., Lynch, J. and M.C. Grootveld (1995). Detection of Aldehydes and their Conjugated Hydroperoxydiene Precursors in Thermally-stressed Culinary Oils and Fats: Investigations using High resolution Proton NMR Spectroscopy. Free Radical Research, 22, 441-482.

Grootveld, M.C., Hertz, H., Haywood, R.M., Hawkes, G.E., Naughton, D.E., Perrerra, A., Knappit, J., Blake, D.R., and A.W.D Claxson (1994). Multicomponent Analysis of Radiolytic Products in Human Body fluids using High field Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy. Radiation Physics and Chemistry, 43, 445-453.

Claxson, A.W.D., Hawkes, G.E., Richardson, D.P., Naughton, D.P., Haywood, R.M., Chander, C.L., Atherton, M., Lynch, E.J., and M.C. Grootveld (1994). Generation of Lipid Peroxidation Products in Culinary Oils and Fats during Episodes of Thermal Stressing: a high-field 1H NMR study. FEBS Letters, 355, 81-90.

Naughton, D.P., Haywood, R.M., Blake, D.R., Edmunds, S., Hawkes, G.E., and M.C. Grootveld (1993). A Comparative Evaluation of the Metabolic Profiles of Normal and Inflammatory Knee-joint Synovial fluids by High Resolution Proton NMR Spectroscopy. FEBS Letters, 332, 221-225.

Davies, M.J., Gilbert, B.C., and R.M. Haywood (1993). Radical-induced Damage to Bovine Serum Albumin:Role of the Cysteine Residue, Free Radical Research Communications, 18, 353-367.

Davies, M.J., Gilbert, B.C. and R.M. Haywood (1991). Radical-induced Damage to Proteins: E.S.R. Spin-trapping Studies. Free Radical Research Communications,15, 111-127.