{"id":73,"date":"2025-06-23T12:34:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T12:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/fetalgenomics\/?page_id=73"},"modified":"2025-11-10T09:58:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T09:58:23","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/fetalgenomics\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"About us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We are affiliated with the Department of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences<\/strong><\/a> at University of Exeter Medical School<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

Alice E. Hughes<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alice is a diabetes clinician and postdoctoral researcher in the group. Her research focuses on the genetics of fetal insulin-mediated growth and its implications for pregnancy and postnatal outcomes. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Aminata H. Cisse<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aminata is a postdoctoral research associate with strong expertise in growth modelling and quantitative analysis. Her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Paris-Cit\u00e9 focused on the genetic and early biological determinants of adiposity rebound using data from French birth cohorts (EDEN, ELFE). Her current research focuses on genetic risk scores associated with gestational diabetes during vs. after pregnancy.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Annika Jaitner<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annika is a postdoctoral research associate, who joined the group in November 2021 as a PhD student. Her thesis focused on using genetics to understand causal mechanisms of risk factors and their implications in pregnancy for mother and child.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Miranda Geddes-Barton<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miranda is a Clinical Lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynaecology who splits her time between clinical work and post-doctoral level research. Her PhD at the University of Oxford investigated the association between socioeconomic disadvantage and adverse maternal health outcomes using population-level hospital data. She is interested in using genetic methods such as Mendelian Randomisation to understand causal associations between risk factors and reproductive health outcomes.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Rachel M. Freathy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachel is a Professor of Human Genetics, Wellcome Senior Research Fellow and leader of the Pregnancy and Fetal Growth Genomics Team. She has led studies that have identified more than 250 regions of the human genome where variations in the genetic code influence birth weight or placental weight. These studies have illuminated genetic links between early growth and later disease and have provided insights into causal links between maternal characteristics, fetal growth and adverse pregnancy outcomes.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Robin N. Beaumont<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robin is a BRC translational research fellow in the Department of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences. His background is in mathematics and statistics, and his research interests are in developing bioinformatic methods and pipelines to understand the role of genetics in complex human phenotypes.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Rosie Purdy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosie is a Graduate Research Assistant who joined the group in November 2024, having graduated with an integrated master\u2019s degree in biological sciences (with a thesis focusing on population genomics) at Cardiff University. Now she is investigating how genetic and intrauterine factors affect fetal growth at different stages of pregnancy.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Shuhe Li<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shuhe is a Graduate Research Assistant who joined the group in January 2025. She holds an MSc degree in Health Data Science from the University of Exeter. Her project focuses on genetic clustering analysis of birth weight-related loci.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Alumni<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oceana Leigh<\/strong> (2024)
\"\"<\/td>		Bhargav Naveen<\/strong> (2022-2024)
\"\"<\/td>		Caitlin Decina<\/strong> (2020-2024)
\"\"<\/td><\/tr>
Maneka Haulder<\/strong> (2019-2024)
\"\"<\/td>		Brandon Lim<\/strong> (2020-2023)
\"\"<\/td>		Daniel Leirer<\/strong> (2020-2022)
\"\"<\/td><\/tr>
Will Thompson<\/strong> (2016-2020)
\"\"<\/td>		<\/td><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

Team Pictures From Our Annual Away Days:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

We are members of the following research consortia:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n