Dr Joe Piper

Joe Piper is an Academic Clinical Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. He is also a UK Paediatrician specialising in Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ST6 GRID registrar), and a honorary Assistant Professor at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in population health.

He is particularly interested in the interplay between child adversity, malnutrition and growth on function and long-term health. Previously, he studied biophysics, then graduate-entry medicine and worked in Kenya on severe malnutrition. He completed a Wellcome Trust Global Health PhD Fellowship examining School-age outcomes from the SHINE cluster randomised trial in Zimbabwe. He collaborates on studies in rural/urban Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Malawi, Gabon, India and Pakistan.

He is particularly interested in school-age biomarkers, physiology, psychology and function in relation to long-term health. Currently, he performs research examining long-term effects of early-life growth, HIV exposure, maternal and environmental influences within Zimbabwe. This includes coordinating deep school-age phenotyping in Zimbabwe, which combines the world’s first solar-powered brain MRI with wellbeing, cognitive, cardiovascular, renal, lung and fitness measurements.

Joe D Piper works closely with Zvitambo Institute for Maternal and Child Health Research in Zimbabwe, as part of the QMUL Global Child Health Group. He particularly works within the Sanitation Hygiene Infant Nutrition Efficacy (SHINE) Trial.

https://theprendergastgroup.org/shine-trial/

He also collaborates with the Biomedical Training Research Institute (BRTI) in Zimbabwe as part of the ARTful Ageing Wellcome Trust Research Consortium. 

Joe Piper is particularly interested in school-age biomarkers, physiology, psychology and function in relation to long-term health and non-communicable disease risk.

 Currently, he performs research examining long-term effects of early-life growth, HIV exposure, child adversity and environmental influences within Zimbabwe. This includes coordinating deep school-age phenotyping in Zimbabwe, which combines the world’s first solar-powered brain MRI with wellbeing, cognitive, cardiovascular, renal, lung and fitness measurements.

 He has a broad range of interests including child adversity, cognition, mental health, infection and inflammatory mechanisms that drive long-term health and function.

• Piper J.D. et al. School-age growth and development following infant feeding and/or water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions in rural Zimbabwe: long-term follow-up of a cluster-randomised trial eClinical Medicine, Vol 78, 102946

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(24)00525-X/fulltext?rss=yes

• Piper J. D. et al. Growth, physical and cognitive function in children who are born HIV-free: School-age follow-up of a cluster-randomized trial in rural Zimbabwe  PLoS Med (Oct 2024), Vol 21, e1004347 https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004347

• Piper J. D. Clever Mazhanga, Gloria Mapako, Idah Mapurisa, Tsitsi Mashedze, Eunice Munyama, et al. Characterising school-age health and function in rural Zimbabwe using the SAHARAN toolbox

PLoS One 2023, Vol 18, (5), p e0285570,  DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285570

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0285570

• Piper J. D, Mazhanga C, Mapako G, Mapurisa I, Mashedze T, Munyama E et al.

The Sanitation Hygiene Infant Nutrition Efficacy (SHINE) Trial: Protocol for School-Age Follow-up

Wellcome Open Access 2023, 8:306, https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/8-306

• Piper J. D, Mazhanga C, Mapako G, Mapurisa I, Mashedze T, Munyama E et al.

Adaptation of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children—2^nd edition (KABC-II) to assess school-age neurodevelopment in rural Zimbabwe Wellcome Open Research, 2022, Vol 7 (274), DOI 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17902.1.  https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/7-274