EC award for Professor Seckl

Professor Jonathan Seckl has secured six-figure European Commission (EC) funding for a collaborative research project exploring links between premature ageing and maternal obesity.

Growing evidence suggests the offspring of women who were obese during pregnancy may suffer from premature or unhealthy ageing.

The project, titled Developmental Origins of Healthy and Unhealthy Ageing - the Role of Maternal Obesity ( DORIAN), seeks to provide further clarification on these links.

It will examine whether maternal obesity can cause pre- and perinatal metabolic and genetic vulnerability that may ultimately lead to disease throughout life and pathological ageing.

Clinical expertise

Jonathan Seckl, the University’s Professor of Molecular Medicine, is a clinical endocrinologist and former Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellow.

He has authored more than 280 peer-reviewed scientific papers and has given more than 200 invited lectures at international meetings, including many plenary talks.

He has also engaged with public audiences, such as schools, providing talks on obesity, stress, developmental programming and ageing.

Awards successes

This EC award is one of 31 awarded to the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine during the month of February.

February awards made elsewhere in the University include Medical Research Council funding to Biological Sciences’ Dr Eric Fevre for his studies into the epidemology, ecology and socio economics of disease emergence in Nairobi.

History of Art’s Dr Edward Juler was awarded a Wellcome Trust three-year postdoctoral fellowship in the medical humanities. His project explores surrealist interpretations of the human body.