Blog posts

Forming the LGBTQ+ International Support Group

Map of the world made of circles of different sizes in colors of LGBT rainbow pride flag isolated on white

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex or asexual (LGBTQ+) travellers can face unique challenges when travelling abroad. That’s why, Rosie Maddren, Lucy Okell, Beth Cracknell-Daniels, Joseph Hicks and Christina Aitchison from the School of Public Health set up the LGBTQ+ International Support Group at Imperial to help improve the overall experience of going abroad for LGBTQ+ staff and student travellers.

This post was originally published in June 2023 and was updated in February 2026

“So are you married?”

I freeze. How do I respond? It seems like a simple enough question, but I’m gay (and so is my spouse). The question is being asked by a taxi driver in a country where not only is same-sex marriage illegal, but so is homosexuality in general. And it’s not just something imposed by the government. A recent poll suggested that 90% of this country’s citizens have a negative view of LGBTQ+ people. So how do I respond? How would you?

Travelling abroad for work is a rewarding opportunity that can come with challenges for any student or staff member. For those identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community, such travel can be associated with further complications. Legal restrictions and societal norms of some countries may make LGBTQ+ staff and students feel anxious, unwelcome or unsafe. Unfortunately, in certain environments being your true self can directly impact your safety. On the other hand, presenting a censored version of yourself may negatively impact your mental health and wellbeing. There is no single correct way to navigate such situations, and there is limited guidance on this topic provided not only by Imperial, but wider networks across the globe. in 2022, a group of us started working together to help build support for LGBTQ+ staff and student travellers at Imperial.

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A new era for gut science begins at Imperial

A new national centre is set to change how we study the human gut. Dr Tamas Korcsmaros, Associate Professor in Intestinal Epithelial Systems, and Dr Lejla Gul, Research Fellow in Host-microbe interactions, introduce the Centre for Intestinal Systems (CIS), a hub dedicated to advancing human-relevant gut research. They explore why the gut matters, how new technologies are reshaping the field, and how CIS aims to connect researchers and innovators to improve patient outcomes.

Imperial  has officially launched the Centre for Intestinal Systems (CIS), an interdisciplinary research hub focused on understanding the human gut and microbiome, and how they influence health and disease.

The Centre was launched on 12 January at Imperial’s White City Campus, with a full-day event bringing together nearly 150 researchers, clinicians, industry partners and funders. The mix of backgrounds and expertise reflected the ambition behind CIS: to connect those working on the gut biology and technology, and to accelerate research that is truly relevant to patients.

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Wishing for lifelong health for every child

Professor Sejal Saglani

This festive period, Three Wise Women from the Faculty of Medicine give us the gift of wisdom.

Professor Sejal Saglani, Professor of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine in the National Heart and Lung Institute and Director of Imperial’s Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health (PaeCH), shines a light on the pressing need to transform how we understand and manage childhood asthma. She discusses why the youngest children face the greatest challenges, how early-life illness shapes long-term health, and the critical role of research and advocacy in addressing inequalities that begin from birth. Her blog is a call to action: if we are to secure lifelong health, we must begin with the earliest years.

Asthma is the most common long-term condition affecting children of all ages worldwide. In the UK, around 10% of children live with asthma – meaning at least two or three children in every classroom. Among these, those under the age of five face the greatest challenges: they experience the most acute attacks, have the highest number of hospital admissions, and account for 75% of all emergency department visits for childhood asthma. Despite this significant burden, the rate of attacks and hospitalisations have remained unchanged for over 20 years.

This time of year brings the issue into sharp focus. Most admissions occur during the autumn and winter months. Parents and families live in a constant state of vigilance, never knowing whether the next runny nose will simply be a cold or will escalate into yet another visit to hospital with wheezing and breathlessness.

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My journey into addiction research and psychiatry

Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes

This festive period, Three Wise Women from the Faculty of Medicine give us the gift of wisdom.

Professor Anne Lingford-Hughes, Professor of Addiction Biology and previously Head of Division of Psychiatry in the Department of Brain Sciences, reflects on the journey that led her to become one of the UK’s leading experts in addiction psychiatry. From early uncertainty about medicine to pivotal moments in research labs in Cambridge and the US, she describes how scientific curiosity – and a fascination with how alcohol and drugs affect the brain – shaped a career dedicated to understanding and treating addiction.

Brought up in the countryside outside Shrewsbury, I was always interested in science and loved doing school projects. I wasn’t seen as particularly clever at school and was even advised that I didn’t need a “career” – just a job until I got married!

The only interesting university course covering “human biology” was medicine. Although I wasn’t sure about becoming a doctor, I applied. My father, a lawyer who had been to Oxford like his own father, wanted me to go there too, but my school was not exactly encouraging. I applied anyway and failed.

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Weight, hormones and health: Rethinking research for women and older adults

Dr Chioma Izzi-Engbeaya

This festive period, Three Wise Women from the Faculty of Medicine give us the gift of wisdom.

Dr Chioma Izzi-Engbeaya, Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction and Consultant Endocrinologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, explores how decades of research into obesity and metabolic health are beginning to translate into better care for women and older adults – from fertility and menopause to cancer and liver disease. But as she explains, the work is far from over: true progress means making sure no group is left behind.

We live in exciting times. Decades of scientific and clinical research have deepened our understanding of the factors driving metabolic conditions such as obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD, also known as ‘fatty liver disease’). 

Alongside this progress, we’ve seen a rapid rise in treatment options for metabolic conditions, with a variety of ever-increasing options on the horizon. However, significant challenges remain. Access to effective treatments is still limited for many people, and there are gaps in the evidence needed to guide how best to manage specific groups of patients. 

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Bridging the stroke gap: Understanding why British South Asian population faces greater risk

Pankaj Sharma

To mark World Stroke Day, Professor Pankaj Sharma, OBE, Principal Clinical Teacher at Imperial College London’s Faculty of Medicine and Consultant Neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, reflects on decades of research uncovering why British South Asian populations experience stroke earlier and more severely than their White British counterparts. Through the groundbreaking BRAINS biobank, his work is revealing crucial genetic and lifestyle insights to improve prevention and outcomes.

Stroke is the third biggest killer globally, second largest cause of dementia, and the most frequent reason for disability. It consumes around 5% of the entire NHS budget. Yet these statistics are not evenly spread across different populations.

British people of South Asian heritage tend to have a worse cardiovascular profile compared to White British individuals. This is likely related to multiple factors, including poorer diets, less exercise, and delayed access to healthcare services. People from South Asia arrived in the UK in large numbers in the 1960s and 1970s. Britain is now home to one of the largest diasporas of South Asian people from the Indian subcontinent and research suggests that this population interacts more frequently with NHS services compared to equivalent White British patients.

However, in order to understand the specific needs of people of South Asian heritage, comprehensive and detailed data are needed, particularly since most of our understanding about stroke and related cardiovascular disease is based on large prospective studies of (often middle-class) White individuals, typically from the United States. Realising the lack of quality data, I set out around 15 years ago to establish a biobank for stroke in South Asian people. It started slowly but rapidly expanded with recruitment taking place across England, India, Qatar and Sri Lanka. Its unique focus on ethnic minorities attracted multimillion dollar funding. The BioRepository of DNA in Stroke (BRAINS) has now become one of the largest such biobanks in the world.

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What helps older adults bounce back after a fall? Their mindset might be key

Falls in later life can be devastating—but mindset matters. Dr Toby Ellmers from the Department of Brain Sciences explores how older adults’ beliefs about ageing significantly influence recovery after a fall. His research reveals that a positive outlook may boost resilience, offering new hope for low-cost, high-impact interventions beyond physical treatment.

Falls are a leading cause of injury and mortality for older adults, costing the NHS nearly £5 million per day. Falls frequently lead to injuries, hospitalisation, and disability. Yet not every older adult who falls goes on to experience physical decline.

We sought to explore how psychological factors influence the recovery process, as these have thus far been ignored, with most studies instead focusing on how physical factors affects recovery. We specifically focused on ‘mindsets around ageing’—an individual’s belief, attitudes and assumptions about the ageing process. We chose to focus on such mindsets, as emerging research identifies these as an important predictor of broader physical function in later life. Yet, their role in post-fall recovery has not yet been studied.

In collaboration with researchers at Coventry University, we studied ~700 adults in England, aged 60 to 90, who had not fallen in the recent past. We asked them about their beliefs around ageing—things like whether getting older was stopping them from doing what they wanted. Over the next year, we then tracked whether or not they experienced a fall and, if so, we tracked how well (or poorly) they physically recovered afterwards. We specifically focused on walking speed, whether they needed help with daily tasks, whether they became more physically inactive.

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Collaborating across borders to tackle HTLV-1 in Africa


HTLV-1 is a little known but serious virus that can cause life-threatening illnesses, including blood cancer and neurological disease. In many African countries, there is still a lack of research and policies to address it. Dr Carolina Rosadas, Research Fellow in Imperial’s Department of Infectious Disease, writes about bringing together scientists, health officials, policymakers, and community representatives from 18 countries for a groundbreaking workshop in Rwanda – sparking new collaborations, research networks, and strategies to combat this overlooked infection.

Based in the Department of Infectious Disease, I am a Research Fellow focusing on HTLV-1 – an understudied infection that disproportionately impacts underserved communities, particularly in Africa. HTLV-1 can cause severe and often fatal conditions, including blood cancer and neurological disease. There is no treatment for this life-long infection, but prevention is possible.

Despite recent global advances and the formal recognition of HTLV as a priority by the World Health Organization (WHO), many countries in Africa still lack sufficient data and policies to address it. My project aimed to promote local research and help translate knowledge into policy by encouraging multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder engagement.

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Eliminating hepatitis B: Bridging research, policy, and practice

Clinical Associate Professor, Shevanthi Nayagam

On World Hepatitis Day, Clinical Associate Professor, Dr Shevanthi Nayagam, working across the School of Public Health and Department of Metabolism, Digestion, and Reproduction, shares how her research is helping shape global and national strategies to eliminate hepatitis B (HBV). From modelling vaccine impact to supporting birth dose policies in Africa, she highlights the power of evidence, collaboration, and local action in tackling this silent epidemic. 

Hepatitis B is a virus that attacks the liver and, over time, can cause serious complications such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. What makes it particularly dangerous is that many people don’t realise that they are infected – it can silently damage the liver for years without causing symptoms.  

One of the things that motivated me to start research in hepatitis B over a decade ago, was just how little attention this virus received, despite affecting 254 million people. In 2022 it was estimated to have caused 1.1 million deaths. I’ve seen how hepatitis B continues to affect the lives of those living with the infection and their families – particularly in low- and middle-income countries where prevention, diagnosis and treatment are often out of reach.  

My translational research sits at the intersection of clinical epidemiology, modelling, and health economics – all aimed at an overarching goal: supporting countries to eliminate viral hepatitis through evidence-based decision making. 

A big part of my work involves connecting the global with the local. This dual approach helps ensure that international recommendations are grounded in real-world data . Of course, this kind of work isn’t done in isolation. Everything we do depends on strong collaboration with a wide range of partners – including clinicians, scientists, ministries of health, policy makers and funding agencies. 

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Inspiring tomorrow’s medics at PCSM’s Outreach Day

Dr Mohammed Sabbir Islam and Lord Professor Robert Winston

At a recent Outreach Day hosted by the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine (PCSM) and HelloFutures, Clinical Teaching Fellow Dr Mohammed Sabbir Islam helped local students explore life as a medic—from diagnosing real NHS cases to learning from none other than Lord Robert Winston. In this blog, Dr Islam reflects on a day of sparking ambition, breaking down barriers, and planting seeds for future careers in healthcare.  

The Pears Cumbria School of Medicine (PCSM) recently had the privilege of welcoming local year eight students for a unique outreach day at the University of Cumbria Fusehill Street campus, linked with HelloFutures.  

I am someone who has directly benefited from outreach projects during my journey into medicine and it was a real pleasure to speak, as a young doctor, to kids with whom I identified. 

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