Studying development to understand human disease
Events prior to birth can have a profound influence on the health of a child. In this theme, our focus is on understanding the earliest stages of development and how they impact child health, and beyond. This approach is necessarily intergenerational – as each child can trace their origin back to a single egg and sperm cell, derived from each of their parents. The sperm and egg contain the genetic and epigenetic information necessary to build a new individual – but this is only realised through the process of development. The early embryo must implant and establish the placenta to support onward embryonic development, therefore maternal health and placental function are also important determinants of child health. Finally, fetal growth and tissue maturation influence not only the ideal delivery time and any subsequent neonatal treatment, but also have a long-lasting influence on health.
Our theme spans the full breadth of research focus; from fundamental, discovery science through to translational research in specialties such as obstetrics, fetal-maternal medicine, perinatology and clinical genetics. We draw on the unique, pre-existing expertise in world-leading centres such as the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology and combine this with researchers and clinicians with relevant interests from across the College, as well as colleagues at the North West Thames Regional Genetics service.
Existing interests include the very earliest events during development such as germline development and gamete biology, pre-implantation development and pluripotent stem cell biology, post-implantation development of the embryo and the placenta, establishment of the body plan and tissue-specific development. In addition, theme members are involved in international multicentre trials in fetal growth restriction, in identifying and treating twin-to-twin transfusion, and in developing novel non-invasive methods of monitoring fetal and neonatal physiology. Translational interests also include the application of genomic analyses and disease modelling approaches to aid clinical diagnosis, develop new genetic tests and guide therapeutic approaches.
Our vision is to foster new multi-disciplinary, cross-site interactions focussed on understanding human development and how this impacts child health and disease.
Key research areas/interests
Key research areas
- Stem Cell Biology
- Developmental Biology
- Genetics
- Epigenetics
- Fetal development
- Fetal-maternal medicine
- Perinatology
- Clinical Genetics
Theme lead
Dr Jay Banerjee
Neonatal consultant and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer
Jay Banerjee is a Neonatal consultant at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and a Hon Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, ICL. He leads neonatal haemodynamics research, has got significant interest in family integrated care research in neonatology and is part of the perinatology research group at the IRDB.
Theme members
Toby Andrew
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Toby Andrew
Senior Lecturer
Santosh Atanur
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Santosh Atanur
Genome Data Scientist
Dr Veronique Azuara
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Dr Veronique Azuara
Reader in Stem Cell Biology
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Dr Petter Brodin
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Dr Petter Brodin
Garfield Weston Chair of Neonatology and Professor of Paediatric Immunology
Ines Cebola
Ines Cebola
Sir Henry Dale Fellow
Dr Hanna Creese
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Dr Hanna Creese
Research Associate
Dr Wei Cui
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Dr Wei Cui
Senior Lecturer
Dr Piers Daubeney
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Dr Piers Daubeney
Professor of Practice (Paediatric Cardiology)
Dr Josu De La Fuente
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Dr Josu De La Fuente
Consultant paediatric haematologist
Dr Charlotte Dean
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Dr Charlotte Dean
Senior Lecturer
Dr Aniko Deierl
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Dr Aniko Deierl
Neonatal consultant
Professor Vasso Episkopou
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Professor Vasso Episkopou
Professor in Developmental Biology
Professor Richard Festenstein
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Professor Richard Festenstein
Clinical Professor of Molecular Medicine
Professor Stephen Franks
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Professor Stephen Franks
Clinical Professor
Professor Petra Hajkova
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Professor Petra Hajkova
Professor of Developmental Epigenetics
Professor Aylin Hanyaloglu
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Professor Aylin Hanyaloglu
Reader in Cell Biology
Professor Kate Hardy
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Professor Kate Hardy
Professor of Reproductive Biology
Dr Beth Holder
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Dr Beth Holder
Lecturer in Maternal and Fetal Health
Dr Channa Jayasena
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Dr Channa Jayasena
Reader in Reproductive Endocrinology
Professor Mark Johnson
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Professor Mark Johnson
Clinical Chair in Obstetrics
Dr Bernhard Kainz
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Dr Bernhard Kainz
Senior Lecturer
Dr Leena Karnik
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Dr Leena Karnik
Consultant paediatric haematologist
Professor Liz Lightstone
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Professor Liz Lightstone
Consul (clinical) for the Faculty of Medicine
Dr Richard Ma
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Dr Richard Ma
NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow
Dr David MacIntyre
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Dr David MacIntyre
Reader in Reproductive Systems Medicine
Dr Victoria Male
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Dr Victoria Male
Lecturer in Reproductive Immunology
Dr Enrique (Fadri) Martinez-Perez
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Dr Enrique (Fadri) Martinez-Perez
Reader in Chromosome Biology
Professor Matthias Merkenschlager
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Professor Matthias Merkenschlager
Professor of Cell Biology
Dr Vicki Metzis
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Dr Vicki Metzis
Sir Henry Dale Research Fellow
Professor Irene Miguel-Aliaga
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Professor Irene Miguel-Aliaga
Professor of Genetics and Physiology
Dr Michelle Percharde
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Dr Michelle Percharde
Honorary Lecturer
Dr Rubén Pérez-Carrasco
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Dr Rubén Pérez-Carrasco
Lecturer in Theoretical Systems Biology
Dr Tristan Rodríguez
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Dr Tristan Rodríguez
Reader in Cell and Developmental Biology
Vanessa Sancho Shimizu
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Vanessa Sancho Shimizu
Senior Lecturer in Paediatric Infectious Disease
Dr Sundar Sathiyamurthy
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Dr Sundar Sathiyamurthy
Neonatal consultant
Dr Makrina Savvidou
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Dr Makrina Savvidou
Consultant (Obstetrics And Gynaecology)
Professor Sonia Saxena
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Professor Sonia Saxena
Professor of Primary Care
Dr Nishel Shah
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Dr Nishel Shah
Honorary Clinical Lecturer
Dr Natasha Singh
Dr Natasha Singh
Consultant (Obstetrics And Gynaecology)
Mikhail Spivakov
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Mikhail Spivakov
Honorary Senior Lecturer
Dr Lynne Sykes
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Dr Lynne Sykes
NIHR Clinical Lecturer
Dr Vasso Terzidou
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Dr Vasso Terzidou
Clinical Senior Lecturer
Dr Juanma Vaquerizas
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Dr Juanma Vaquerizas
Max Planck Research Group Leader
Dr James Ware
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Dr James Ware
Reader in Genomic Medicine
Dr Elizabeth Whittaker
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Dr Elizabeth Whittaker
Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer
Dr Angela Yulia
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Dr Angela Yulia
Consultant (Obstetrics And Gynaecology)