Queen Mary welcomes Professor Claudia Langenberg as the Director of the newly established Precision Healthcare University Research Institute (PHURI).
PHURI is the second University Research Institute at Queen Mary, joining the Digital Environment Research Institute (DERI) which official launched earlier this year.
The new cross-faculty institute builds on the powerful partnership between Queen Mary and Barts NHS Trust. It will continue the organisations’ shared focus on accelerating the latest healthcare innovations from bench to bedside to deliver better health for all.
PHURI will drive research to better understand how disease impacts different patient groups and work in close partnership with the Trust to use real-world clinical data to drive the development and targeted prescription of treatments based on patients’ needs. This will help to build a stronger health service for the people of East London, the UK and the world.
PHURI will be co-located with DERI in Empire House on the Whitechapel Campus until their dedicated building is finalised.
Professor Langenberg joins Queen Mary from Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) where she was a Professor of Computational Medicine, and the University of Cambridge where she was the Medical Research Council (MRC) Investigator and Programme Leader at the MRC Epidemiology Unit. Professor Langenberg is also a public health clinician by training, and her research is focused on the genetic basis of metabolic control.
Professor Langenberg, Director of the Precision Health University Research Institute, said of her appointment: “Every patient deserves a precise diagnosis that enables targeted therapy and an informed answer to the simple question ‘how serious is my problem, doctor?’. Currently, this isn’t the case for many patients.
"We know that population groups in East London are underrepresented in research, and we want to change this. The creation of the PHURI allows us to focus on research that matters to our local population, treat patients according to their specific diagnosis, and generate knowledge that helps to achieve precision health care and better health for all. ‘From Whitechapel to the world’ is a phrase that immediately inspired me to take on this exciting opportunity.”
Professor Andrew Livingston, Vice-Principal for Research and Innovation, said: “We are thrilled Claudia is joining Queen Mary as Director of PHURI. She brings exceptional leadership experience and research expertise, all rooted in a passion for delivering better healthcare for patients, locally, nationally and internationally. I am very much looking forward to working with her in her new role.”