About the departments
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics – St Mary’s Campus
The Department, headed by Professor Paul Elliott, focuses on aetiological research in chronic diseases epidemiology, investigating both genetic and environmental causes of disease. Major programmes include:
- MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health
- CHESS - Chronic Health Effects of Smoke and SO2 in the UK
- EPIC - European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition
- INTERMAP - INTERnational collaborative study of MAcronutrients, micronutrients and blood Pressure
- SAHSU - Small Area Health Statistics Unit
- TETRA - Airwave Health Monitoring cohort study of the UK police forces
- UK COSMOS - cohort study of mobile phone use and health
- LOLIPOP - cohort study of 30,000 UK Indian Asian and North European men and women
- Northern Finland 1966 and 1986 birth cohort studies.
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology – St Mary’s Campus
The Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, headed by Professor Neil M Ferguson OBE FMedSci, carries out world class research into a wide variety of infectious diseases and pathogens, including:
- AIDS and HIV
- SARS and pandemic influenza
- Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (e.g. BSE, Scrapie and vCJD)
- drug-resistant bacteria (e.g. MRSA) and parasites
- childhood viral and bacterial diseases
- emerging fungal infections
- epidemic viral infections of livestock (e.g. FMD)
- parasitic helminth infections
- bioterrorism
The Department promotes interdisciplinary research in the epidemiology, population biology, evolution and control of infectious diseases. It hosts the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling, the Partnership for Child Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates-Foundation funded Schistosomiasis Control Initiative for Africa.
Department of Primary Care and Public Health - Charing Cross Campus
The aim of the Department of Primary Care and Public Health is to promote interdisciplinary research on interventions that promote health and optimise health care delivery. The key research areas for PCPH are primary care epidemiology, the prevention, early detection and management of chronic diseases, health systems performance monitoring, assessment of health outcomes, and health inequalities. The department hosts the WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education & Training and the Global eHealth Unit. The department also has large teaching and training programmes in clinical medicine and public health. The Department is headed by Professor Azeem Majeed.
Research interests
The research groups of all three departments are internationally renowned and include staff with expertise in Bayesian statistics and computation, statistical genetics, spatial and environmental epidemiology, models for measurement error, longitudinal and survival data analysis, infectious diseases, disease transmission models, pathogen ecology, AIDS and sexual health, immunisation and control programmes, vector-borne infections, neglected tropical diseases, reproductive epidemiology, cancer epidemiology, cardio-vascular and respiratory disease epidemiology, nutritional and lifestyle epidemiology, exposure assessment, health services research, health policy, qualitative and quantitative behavioural research, medical ethics, social epidemiology, and clinical medicine.
The departments are committed to teaching and also organise a number of short professional courses, undergraduate teaching and have an active and growing PhD programme.
