Four UCL GOS ICH academics elected to Academy of Medical Sciences

UCL has more new AMS Fellows this year than any other university and four of our Insitute staff are among the 12 academics from UCL to be elected:

Professors Dame Lyn Chitty DBE, Mehul Dattani, and Ruth Gilbert (all UCL GOS Institute of Child Health), Professor Jugnoo Rahi (UCL GOS Institute of Child Health and Institute of Ophthalmology) Professors Olga Ciccarelli, Henry Houlden, and Ley Sander (all UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology), Professor Aroon Hingorani (UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science), Professors Helen Lachmann and Stuart Taylor (both UCL Medicine), Professor Troy Margrie (Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL) and Professor Claudia Mauri (UCL Infection & Immunity) are among 59 influential biomedical and health scientists elected to the Fellowship this year.

Fellows are drawn from institutions across the UK and their breadth of expertise ranges from molecular imaging to biostatistics to public health policy. This year’s elected scientists join a prestigious Fellowship of 1,400 esteemed researchers who are central to the Academy’s work. 

The academics from our Institute are:

Professor Dame Lyn Chitty DBE 

Professor Chitty has been based at UCL’s GOS Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) since the 1980s and is the UK’s only Professor of Genetics and Fetal Medicine. She has pioneered research into rapid and non-invasive prenatal diagnosis, offering families lower risk options to find out about the health of their unborn child. 

Professor Mehul Dattani 

Mehul Dattani is Professor of paediatric endocrinology based at the UCL’S GOS Institute of Child Health and has, until recently, been the specialty lead in endocrinology at GOSH. As a consultant in paediatric endocrinology at GOSH, University College London Hospital and at several national and international outreach clinics, he has established a large clinical practice of children with various endocrine disorders. His research has made significant inroads into the understanding and management of rare paediatric endocrine disorders.  

Professor Ruth Gilbert 

Professor Ruth Gilbert is a clinical epidemiologist, who trained in paediatrics. Currently, she is the Co-Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR) Children and Families Policy Research Unit. Much of her research uses de-identified, administrative data to address clinical and policy questions related to the health of children and families. 

Professor Jugnoo Rahi

Professor Jugnoo Rahi is a paediatric ophthalmologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital and an epidemiologist. She is a Professor of Ophthalmic Epidemiology at UCL’s GOS Institute of Child Health and Institute of Ophthalmology, leading the Vision and Eyes Group. Professor Rahi’s group focuses on improving visual health and addressing eye disease and visual impairment in childhood alongside the early life origins of and life course influences on chronic complex eye conditions and visual health in adult life.

Professor David Lomas, UCL Vice Provost (Health), said: “I am delighted that the latest cohort of UCL Fellows demonstrates the quality and breadth of expertise within UCL Health with fabulous work being done in genetics and fetal medicine through to systems neuroscience and autoinflammatory diseases.

“Each of the twelve new fellows from UCL has made an outstanding contribution to biomedical science. Congratulations to each of them on this well-deserved accolade.”

Professor Dame Anne Johnson PMedSci, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Co-Director of UCL Health of the Public, congratulated the new Fellows, saying: “These new Fellows are pioneering biomedical research and driving life-saving improvements in healthcare, from understanding the spread of infectious diseases to developing mental health interventions. It’s a pleasure to recognise and celebrate their exceptional talent by welcoming them to the Fellowship.

“This year, we are celebrating our 25th anniversary. The Fellowship is our greatest asset, and their broad expertise and dynamic ability has shaped the Academy to become the influential, expert voice of health. As we look to the future, the collective wisdom our new Fellows bring will be pivotal in achieving our mission to create an open and progressive research sector to improve the health of people everywhere.”
 

Links:

• Academy of Medical Sciences release
• Professor Dame Lyn Chitty DBE’s academic profile
• Professor Mehul Dattani’s academic profile
• Professor Ruth Gilbert’s academic profile
• Professor Jugnoo Rahi’s academic profile
• UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
• UCL Population Health Sciences

Media contact 

Molly Bridge

E: molly.bridge@ucl.ac.uk