Leading scientist elected to prestigious Academy

The Academy of Medical Sciences has elected prominent Newcastle Professor, Muzlifah Haniffa to their Fellowship.

Fellows to the Academy are chosen for their exceptional contributions to advancing biomedical science via world-leading research discoveries, running national science communication and engagement programmes, and translating scientific advances into benefits for patients and the public, all of which Professor Haniffa contributes through her work with the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

Leading figures elected

Professor Muzlifah Haniffa is lead for the NIHR Newcastle BRC skin and oral disease theme and Honorary Consultant Dermatologist with Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She is joined in this accolade by colleague Professor Sophie Hambleton, a clinical paediatric immunologist at Newcastle’s Great North Children’s Hospital.

Now a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship, Haniffa, who is Professor of Dermatology and Immunology at Newcastle University, pioneered the application of single cell genomics to map the developing and adult human immune system in healthy and diseased tissues.

She has made fundamental basic science discoveries for clinical applications and is a leading figure in the global Human Cell Atlas initiative, which is currently looking at looking at why coronavirus affects individual people so differently.

Professor Haniffa said:

“I feel honoured and humbled to have been elected to the prestigious Academy of Medical Sciences.

“The election was made possible by the fantastic support I have received from Newcastle University and Newcastle Hospitals, past and present members of my team, our amazing collaborators around the world, and the Wellcome Trust and Lister Institute.

“Together we have shown how multi-disciplinary expertise, combined with a collaborative and open research culture, can unravel fundamental biological insights to innovate clinical therapy.

“I look forward to assisting the Academy in its work to advance biomedical and health research and its translation into benefits for society.

“It is important that we adopt new ways of working to ensure medical science and higher education continues to contribute towards effective exit strategies from the COVID-19 pandemic.  The lockdown has shown that physical location need not be a barrier to global collaboration”.

Professor Philippa Saunders FRSE FMedSci, Registrar of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said:

“Our health depends on the highest quality biomedical science, something which is even more important with the broad health challenges facing the world today, from pandemics to climate change.

“The best science requires the best minds from a wide range of backgrounds coming into biomedical science, and importantly moving through to senior and leadership positions.”

Image credit to: bigT Images, Academy of Medical Sciences.