Lifelong Health

This is particularly acute for communities who experience inequalities, like many of our local population in East London. The ageing society is one of the government’s “grand challenges” to help older citizens lead independent, fulfilled lives, continuing to contribute to society. To achieve our Faculty's vision of ‘better health for all’, we must renew our focus on healthy ageing throughout the life course.

The Lifelong Health multidisciplinary research theme (MDT) within the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry became active at the beginning of 2022. The theme seeks to promote collaboration in research to find solutions to these complex social challenges, and support the research mission and strategy of the faculty. Our research covers the whole life course from pre-conception to death, with a focus on metabolism, rare diseases, drug discovery, and health inequalities. 

Our achievements since 2022 have included:

• Recruiting 3 new Senior Lecturers, working in Rare Diseases and Metabolism
• Establishing an MRes in Regenerative Medicine
• Providing pump priming grants for 3 interdisciplinary research projects
• Outstanding successes in big grant applications, including the Academic Centre for Healthy Ageing, Barts Metabolism Network and a Dementia and Neurodegeneration Policy Research Unit
• Connecting with the community through activities such as a joint event with the Mile End Institute, two Festival of Communities (East London), and a Women's Health community listening campaign in collaboration with CitizensUK
• Developing interdisciplinarity through events such as whiteboards, sandpits, workshops and seminars, with attendance from 300+ individuals from different faculties, institutes and external organisations

Find out more about our theme by watching the video below: