Use of network analysis to understand the molecular footprint of body mass index

Project Code MRCPHS25Br Corbin Research Theme Population Health Sciences Project Summary Download Summary This project aims to better understand obesity, a disease whose prevalence continues to rise worldwide despite local, national and international strategies to tackle the epidemic. Adiposity, measured…

Novel morphological markers of congenital heart disease: from computational modelling to population data

Project Code MRCPHS25Br Biglino Research Theme Population Health Sciences Project Summary Download Summary Congenital heart disease (CHD) affects 1/110 births, causes 220,000 deaths/year and affects 13+ million worldwide. The aetiology of CHD is complex, with evidence of both genetic and…

How safe are antiseizure medications in pregnancy for conditions other than epilepsy?

Project Code MRCPHS25Ba McGrogan Research Theme Population Health Sciences Project Summary Download Summary Did you know that only 5% of medicines licensed in the UK have sufficient evidence about their safety in pregnancy? Women may be advised not to use…

Causal inference tools to study vaccines using real-world data: how can we make better use of negative control outcomes?

Project Code MRCPHS25Ba McDonald Research Theme Population Health Sciences Project Summary Download Summary “Vaccination saves lives! Observational vaccine studies are important to assess real-world effectiveness and safety, but people who receive vaccines differ from those who do not, so confounding…

Parental transmission of substance use: exploring mechanisms and informing intervention

Project Code MRCPHS25Ba Hines Research Theme Population Health Sciences Project Summary Download Summary Reducing substance use is a key goal within public health. Recent work has shown that a strong predictor of adolescent substance use is the substance use of…

An investigation of the factors that influence post-disaster mental health in a Brazilian birth cohort study

Project Code MRCPHS25Ba Halligan Research Theme Population Health Sciences Project Summary Download Summary Exposure to traumatic events like disasters is a major risk factor for poor mental health. However, understanding of the pre-existing factors that contribute to better or worse…

Characterising a new neuroimmune pathway to treat Alzheimer’s disease

Project Code MRCNMH25Ex Witton Research Theme Neuroscience & Mental Health Project Summary Download Summary Microglia are brain-resident immune cells. Alongside conventional molecular signals, the latest research suggests that specific patterns of brain activity can control microglia function. We have found…

Metabolic psychiatry – Understanding ethnic and global differences in the inter-relationships between obesity and mental health

Project Code MRCNMH25Ex Tyrrell Research Theme Neuroscience & Mental Health Project Summary Download Summary Many people live with multiple health conditions, but research still tends to focus on individual diseases. This project, focuses on two global health problems with a…

Exploiting lipid binding proteins to tackle neurological disorders

Project Code MRCNMH25Ex Schrader Research Theme Neuroscience & Mental Health Project Summary Download Summary This multi-disciplinary project combines cutting-edge molecular cell biology, neurobiological, and biochemical (lipid analysis) approaches to reveal novel links between organelle membrane proteins, lipid metabolism, and neurodegenerative…

Assuming associations from old data- the case of ADHD and drug use

Project Code MRCNMH25Ex Russell Research Theme Neuroscience & Mental Health Project Summary Download Summary Many research papers about ADHD include the sentence “ADHD is associated with increased risk of substance use”.  However, new analysis in UK datasets has shown no…