Blog posts

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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World No Tobacco Day – some reasons to be cheerful

Prof Nick Hopkinson

What does a future without tobacco look like — and how close are we to achieving it? On World No Tobacco Day, Professor Nick Hopkinson from the National Heart and Lung Institute highlights recent developments that offer real reasons for optimism. From the UK’s bold Tobacco and Vapes Bill to global momentum behind measures like generational sales bans and filter bans, he explores the policies, progress, and possibilities shaping a smokefree future.  

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is making its way steadily through Parliament and should be on the statute books later this year. This will create a smokefree generation where it will be illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born on or after 1st Jan 2009 – though possession and smoking itself will not be illegal. 

The Maldives also has recently passed legislation to introduce a generational sales ban. Meanwhile a new report from the European Respiratory Society sets out clearly that a generational sales ban falls within the competence of EU Member States, so there is no legal bar to other European countries following the UK’s lead.  

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will also extend the government’s powers to regulate all nicotine and tobacco products in relation to packaging, branding, point of sale, ingredients and product design, prohibit all remaining advertising and sponsorship of nicotine products (tobacco itself being already comprehensively prohibited), introduce powers to create retail licencing for nicotine and tobacco products, extend smokefree legislation powers to   include outdoor public places, and introduce the ability to designate smokefree areas,  as well as increase penalties and enforcement powers. There is a strong theme of future-proofing the legislation to prevent the tobacco industry from developing workarounds. 

June 1st sees a ban on the sale of disposable vapes across the UK. This has been introduced on environmental rather than health grounds, and by Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) rather than Department of Health Social Care (DHSC). The impact of this measure on the prevalence of vaping itself will probably be modest, as the industry has adapted rapidly to produce vape devices that are technically reusable but have a similar appearance and will be just as cheap. The planned excise tax, which should set a minimum unit price for vapes, is likely to have more effect, and restrictions set out in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill should substantially reduce the appeal and accessibility of vaping to children and young people, while keeping vaping available as an option for people who want to use it to quit smoking.  

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Cracking the code of resistance: A new era for myeloma therapy

Dr Nick Crump

On World Blood Cancer Day, Dr Nick Crump, Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund Intermediate Fellow in the Hugh and Josseline Langmuir Centre for Myeloma Research, Department of Immunology and Inflammation, shares how new approaches to understanding what causes drug resistance may lead to identifying new treatments. 

Multiple myeloma is the second most common blood cancer. Around 33,000 people are living with myeloma in the UK. Unfortunately, it is currently incurable, and once diagnosed many people live with the disease for the rest of their life. It is more common in people aged over 65, meaning that as the population ages, the number of people with myeloma is expected to rise. At the Hugh and Josseline Langmuir Centre for Myeloma Research at Imperial College London, we are working to better understand myeloma cell behaviour to find new ways to treat myeloma patients. 

Several different drugs are available to myeloma patients that can manage and control the disease. Unfortunately, relapse is a big problem, where the cancer comes back months or years after treatment has ended. When the cancer returns, it is often resistant to the previous treatment, meaning that the drugs that worked before are no longer effective for that patient. Therefore, there is a real need to find new drugs for these patients. Our lab is working to understand what causes resistance to myeloma drugs, to look for ways to reverse that resistance and make the treatment effective again. 

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