Hundreds of connections between different human diseases have been uncovered through their shared origin in our genome by an international research team led by Unit scientists, challenging the categorisation of diseases by organ, symptoms, or clinical speciality. A new study published in Science today generated data on thousands of proteins circulating in our blood and […]

In a new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, a team led by Professor Sadaf Farooqi, found that 1 in 100 children with severe obesity from the GOOS cohort, have mutations in GNAS which encodes Gαs (stimulatory G-protein alpha subunit). GNAS mutations typically cause a condition called pseudohypoparathyroidism (PHP) and impair signalling […]

The MRC Epidemiology Unit is excited to announce the availability of PhD student places. We investigate the causes and prevention of diabetes, obesity and related metabolic disorders. PhD students are encouraged to develop and conduct their own research relevant to any of the Department’s nine research programmes: Aetiology and Mechanisms of Diabetes and Related Metabolic […]

Public Health England (PHE) have published the report Integration of physical activity promotion within primary and secondary care settings: Rapid evidence review and lessons from practice case studies.  The report, which was led by researchers at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, examined the factors that influence successful integration of physical activity into UK healthcare settings for […]

Today, 22 September, 2021, Public Health England (PHE) have published the report Diet, Nutrition and Physical Activity in 2020: a follow up study during COVID-19. The study aimed to describe and assess the impact of the pandemic on the diet and physical activity of people in the UK by following up participants who had previously […]

In a recent study funded by the British Heart Foundation, Guillaume Bidault and members of the TVP group, working with colleagues from the MRC LMB, provide some important new insights into how making fat in immune cells might help to fight disease. Immune cell activation defends the body against foreign agents such as bacteria, viruses, […]

A multi-centre study, involving researchers including Dr Agatha van der Klaauw and Prof Sadaf Farooqi, with others  from across the University and beyond, has been awarded UKRI funding for research that seeks to underpin how best to use vaccines for protection from COVID-19 infection. The SARS-CoV-2 vaccine ResPonse In Obesity (SCORPIO) study will investigate the […]

Congratulations to Isadora Clivatti Furigo, until recently a post-doctoral researcher in the Ozanne Group, on winning the 2021 Michael Harbuz Award. The Award is presented annually by the British Society for Neuroendocrinology to honour the memory and contribution to neuroendocrinology of Dr Michael Harbuz, who died in 2006 at the young age of 47, and […]

Young adults aged 18 to 24 are at the highest risk of becoming overweight or developing obesity in the next decade of their life compared to adults in any other age group, and obesity prevention policies should target this group, finds a new study co-led by researchers at the MRC Epidemiology Unit and University College […]

  Congratulations to Professors Stephen O’Rahilly and Sadaf Farooqi who are announced today as winners of the Royal Society’s prestigious Croonian Medal “for their seminal discoveries regarding the control of human body weight, resulting in novel diagnostics and therapies, which improve human health”. The Croonian Medal has been awarded annually since 1728 and its recipients […]