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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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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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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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Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures: How neonatal research is shaping lifelong health

Dr Cheryl Battersby

Dr Cheryl Battersby, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health and theme lead for Neonatal Medicine at Imperial’s Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health (PaeCH), shares how neonatal research is helping to shape lifelong health outcomes for the most vulnerable babies. From harnessing the power of national data to leading pioneering research programmes, Cheryl and her colleagues are working to ensure that every baby – no matter how early or unwell they are born – has the best possible start in life.

We believe that every child deserves the best start in life, and we know from decades of research and clinical care that the health of a baby in the first days and weeks after birth can shape their entire future.

In the UK alone, around 90,000 babies each year are admitted to neonatal units. Some are born too soon. Others arrive on time but need urgent medical care. These fragile early moments matter. They are the beginning of a lifelong journey.

At Imperial College London, our Neonatal Medicine Research Group is one of the largest academic neonatal centres in the UK. We’re a dynamic team of neonatologists (doctors who specialise in the care of newborn infants), neonatal nurses, statisticians, data scientists, and public involvement experts – working together to transform care for the smallest, sickest newborns.

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Spotlighting Air Quality Researchers on Clean Air Day

Group photo of Aerosol Science Team at Imperial’s Environmental Research Group in front of an air quality monitoring site (Ian is fifth from the left)
Group photo of Aerosol Science Team at Imperial’s Environmental Research Group in front of an air quality monitoring site (Dr Ian Chen is fifth from the left)

Air pollution is linked to 43,000  deaths each year in the UK.  The World Health Organization and the UK Government recognise that air pollution is the largest environmental threat to our health. To mark Clean Air Day, we’re spotlighting Dr Ian (Gang) Chen and Dr Kayla Schulte from Imperial’s Environmental Research Group who are leading the charge in the fight against air pollution. 

Dr Ian (Gang) Chen 

As a kid growing up in China, I always thought the haze was just another humid day with fog. Only after watching the Chinese-made documentary, Under the Dome in 2015, did I realise how polluted our air was. I was shocked and determined to do something about it. To begin my research journey in air pollution, I pursued a two-year MPhil program at the University of Toronto. There, I focused on developing a low-cost sensor to detect soot particles in developing countries. After that, I became interested in identifying and quantifying sources of air pollutants for my PhD studies at ETH Zurich, since it’s the most straightforward way to target emission sources and mitigate air pollution. My research has focused on this topic ever since.  

Our team (Aerosol Science) at Imperial’s Environmental Research Group maintain two air quality supersites in London, where we use the latest technology to continuously monitor pollution. One site is located near Baker Street, central London, a traffic station, while the other is an urban background site located in Honor Oak Park in south London. On Clean Air Day 2023, we launched a particulate matter (PM) dashboard which shows the hourly chemical composition of the solid particles and liquid droplets found in our air.  Making this data open-access and interactive is crucial for public understanding of the air we breathe. The organic mass in PM often contains millions of compounds and my research focuses on identifying and quantifying its sources. In the coming years, we aim to provide near real-time source information for PM on this dashboard, so that both the public and policymakers can understand where the pollution is coming from.  

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Closing the Gender Health Gap: A Call for Sex and Gender Equity in Biomedical Research Policies

When it comes to healthcare, there are clear and stark inequalities between women and men. Marina Politis, Alice Witt, and Kate Womersley explain how, at its root, this gender health gap derives from a research and data gap, and how the MESSAGE project is working to improve accounting of sex and gender dimensions in medical research.

Everyone aspires to receive gold standard treatment when seeking medical care. What if, however, this standard, was only ever set out to be gold for one group of people? Much of our medical evidence base has been based on a male norm, with women underrepresented at all stages of the research pipeline. Subsequently, when a woman suffers an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, she is less likely to receive bystander CPR than a man. Once in the hospital, she continues to be less likely to receive optimal care than her male counterpart.

The gender health gap in cardiovascular disease – poorer outcomes women experience due to the “male default” in health research and healthcare – is just one of many conditions for which there are disparities between women and men. From dementia to diabetes, and osteoporosis to obesity, sex and gender differences and similarities remain neglected in UK and international research.

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Why not eliminate HTLV-1 while eliminating HIV-1? We need HTLV-1 PEP/PrEP clinical trials.

Dr Goedele Maertens and Dr Fabiola Martin

HTLV-1 PrEP Open Letter to Gilead & ViiV 

Human T Lymphotropic/Leukaemia Virus-1 (HTLV-1) is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) closely related to human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1). HTLV-1 causes chronic infection, can be transmitted from mother to baby and is associated with significant disease burden and mortality, preceded by years of suffering and poor quality of life for victims.   

Therefore, HTLV-1 is one of the 2030 elimination targets of the World Health Organization’s global STI elimination strategy.  

Although there is currently no drug or vaccine available to cure HTLV-1, we now know that the very same drugs that effectively treat patients with HIV or prevent people from getting HIV-1, called HIV PrEP, also prevent the transmission of HTLV-1 in our laboratory testing (Reviewed in Bradshaw and Taylor, Frontiers in Medicine 2022). We believe that these compounds are likely to block the transmission from mother to child. 

It is well known that many HIV PrEP clinical trials are conducted in countries where HTLV-1 is common. So, by adding in HTLV-1 testing to these HIV-PrEP trials we could measure if the HIV PrEP drugs also prevent HTLV-1 transmission. The beauty of such an outcome would be that these HIV-1 drugs are already licensed to be used in humans.  

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Sharing dumplings, jetlag and the stage: co-presenting at conferences, the way forward

Dr Lindsay Dewa, Advanced Research Fellow in Mental Health, and Pelumi Fatayo, co-producer of Nexus, reflect on their experiences of presenting together at an international conference, and the value of putting co-production into practice. 

“Oof – long day that wasn’t it! Is it 11pm or 7am? Is it Friday or Saturday? I’m so confused!” – Lindsay

That was a question I had asked Pelumi following over 24 hours of travelling from London (and Manchester for Pelumi) to South Korea. But I could see it was already well worth the trip before we’d even stepped out of the taxi – the bright lights, the heat… the friendly taxi driver trying to figure out where our hotel was on his five digital devices… we were excited! But what I was most looking forward to was co-presenting about co-production in mental health research at a prestigious international conference – ISQua – with one of my young co-producers, Pelumi. The conference theme was “Technology, culture and co-production: Looking to the horizon of quality and safety” so we felt it was perfect for us to share our experiences.

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Navigating the debate on prostate cancer screening in the UK: Balancing risks, resources, and outcomes

In the rapidly evolving landscape of healthcare, few topics have garnered as much attention and controversy as prostate cancer screening in the UK. With approximately one in six men destined to face this diagnosis in their lifetime, the urgency to address this issue is undeniable. To provide clarity amidst this complexity, Rebecca Wright, Honorary GP Teaching Fellow at the School of Public Health, and Azeem Majeed, Professor of Primary Care and Public Health, and Head of the Department of Primary Care & Public Health, at Imperial College London, delve into the heart of this debate, seeking to balance the critical factors of risks, resources, and outcomes in prostate cancer screening in England. 

Prostate cancer screening in England has become very topical and attracted considerable recent news coverage. Around one in six men will get prostate cancer at some point in their lives with incidence increasing with age. Another major risk factor is ethnicity; black men are at highest risk of prostate cancer and Asian men are at lowest risk. Other risk factors include family history, obesity and genetics; for example, those with a fault in their BRCA 2 gene (genes that produce proteins that help repair damaged DNA) have a two times higher risk of developing prostate cancer. (1) 

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Margaret Turner Warwick Centre: Can we take your breath away?

The Great Exhibition Road Festival is a free annual celebration of science and the arts each summer in South Kensington. The event showcases a diverse range of activities for people of all ages.  One of those activities, led by researchers from the Margaret Turner Warwick Centre and volunteers from the charity Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis, included an interactive activity that gave the public the opportunity to walk in the shoes of someone living with pulmonary fibrosis. Find out first-hand from Elisabeth Pyman, what happened on the day and hear from pulomary fibrosis patient, Andy, what it’s like to live with the condition.

The June weekend of the Great Exhibition Road Festival was one of quintessential British summertime weather. This celebration of science was hosted by Imperial College London in collaboration with the local community and provided a wide range of topics for people of all ages to explore. Under intermittent spells of rain, crowds of a multitudinous diversity explored the “awe and wonder” of science, the theme of this year’s festival. To welcome the public, artists and scientists populated the streets and buildings surrounding Imperial’s South Kensington campus like a sudden desert bloom.

Meanwhile, another transformation was taking place in a stand tucked away at the end of the road in the Creative Science zone. Researchers from the Margaret Turner Warwick Centre and volunteers from the charity Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis were on a mission to spread awareness about a rare lung condition known as pulmonary fibrosis. This condition is associated with a build-up of scar tissue that leads to a steady decline in lung function, with many patients becoming terminal only five years after diagnosis. Currently, there are 32,500 UK residents living with a diagnosis, but the actual number of people affected is estimated at around 100,000.

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