Skip to main content
The William Harvey Research Institute - Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
  1. WHRI
  2. People
  3. Academic staff
  4. Items

Dr Emma F Magavern

Emma F

NIHR Clinical Academic Lecturer

Centre: Clinical Pharmacology and Precision Medicine

Email: e.magavern@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

Dr Emma Magavern is a Clinical Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology and an MRC Clinician Scientist. She completed her PhD in pharmacogenomics at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, working with Professor Sir Mark Caulfield and Professor Damian Smedley. She was then appointed a NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer, splitting her time between 50% clinical work and 50% academic work, and progressed to an MRC Clinician Scientist post which involves 80% research and 20% clinical work. She completed a BA in English prior to her MD and subsequent MScs in Bioethics and Genomics. Through training in clinical medicine, humanities, genetics, and pharmacology she has developed an interest in the scientific merits, clinical potential, and implementation challenges of pharmacogenomics. She was co-secretary of the Royal College of Physicians/British Pharmacological Society (BPS) working group on pharmacogenomics and led the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) cardiovascular pharmacotherapy working group (CVP) pharmacogenomics position paper. She is part of the NHS England Network of Excellence for Pharmacogenomics and a co-lead for the pharmacogenomics section of the Health Education England GeNotes initiative. Her main focus is on leveraging genomic medicine to reduce existing health inequalities.

Research

Group members:

Maia Megase

Maia Megase is a PhD student in pharmacology specialising in computational pharmacogenomics. Her research uses large scale genomic and electronic health record data to examine how genetic variation influences cardiovascular medication response and adverse outcomes, particularly in underrepresented populations. She holds a BSc (Honours) in Pharmacology from the University of Glasgow.

Jack Thompson

Dr Jack Thompson is a a MRC Medicines Development Doctoral Fellow working within Dr Emma Magavern’s research group which focusses on understanding how genetics contribute to interindividual differences in drug response. His own PhD focusses on using metabolomics to understand the on- and off- target effects of antiretrovirals and how this tool can help streamline early phase clinical trials.

Dr Jack Thompson undertook undergraduate medical training with an intercalated Bachelors in Pharmacology at the University of Bristol and has since worked as a doctor in the UK and New Zealand. He is undertaking speciality training in clinical pharmacology and general internal medicine with a focus on cardiovascular prevention.

He has since pursued his interests in precision medicine by completing a postgraduate masters in Genomic Medicine at Imperial College London and contributed to the development of clinical pharmacogenomic guidelines as part of the Centre for Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation in Pharmacogenomics.

Kemi Webster

Kemi is a Clinical Pharmacist who also holds a secondment role as Lead Pharmacist for Genomics and Pharmacogenomics at the NEY GMS. Since completing a Master’s degree in Genomic Medicine, she has remained committed to advancing education and training to support the implementation of pharmacogenomics (PGx) in the UK, including contributing to the development of the CERSI PGx education and training platform.

Kavita Bedi

TBC

Research summary 

Medicines do not work well or have side effects for many people who try them. Some of the reason for this variability in medication response is due to common variants in DNA. Large scale research on populations has shown that all of us will have at least one variant in our DNA that would change the approach to medicines use if we needed a specific medicine. Therefore, if we know who has these DNA variants, we can prescribe medicine in a more personalised way avoiding a trial-and-error approach. This can make medicines safer by reducing bad reactions to medications and improving how medicines work for people. My work is focused on understanding more about how and why people with different variants in DNA respond differently to medications. For this field of work to benefit patients the public need to know about this topic and tell the health care teams how we should use this practically in clinical settings in the NHS to benefit patients. Therefore, my work is also focused on communicating with patients and the public about this area of science, curating patient and prescriber information resources, and surveying patient attitudes, concerns, and needs. 

Publications

  • Magavern EF, Marengo G, Megase M et al. (publicationYear). Family health history and pharmacogenomics show cross generation premature amitriptyline discontinuation is associated with CYP2C19 loss of-function enrichment. nameOfConference


  • Moore C, Magavern EF, Alexander M et al. (2025). Pharmacogenomics in pediatric oncology: Australian adolescent or young adult and caregiver perspectives. nameOfConference


    QMRO: qmroHref
  • Bueno H, Deaton C, Farrero M et al. (2025). 2025 ESC Clinical Consensus Statement on mental health and cardiovascular disease: developed under the auspices of the ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee. nameOfConference


    QMRO: qmroHref
  • De Backer J, Haugaa KH, Hasselberg NE et al. (2025). 2025 ESC Guidelines for the management of cardiovascular disease and pregnancy. nameOfConference


    QMRO: qmroHref
  • Coley K, John C, Ghouse J et al. (2025). Genomics of chronic dry cough unravels neurological pathways. nameOfConference


  • Magavern EF, Megase M, Thompson J et al. (publicationYear). Pharmacogenetics and adverse drug reports: Insights from a United Kingdom national pharmacovigilance database.. nameOfConference


  • Cipriani V, Vestito L, Magavern EF et al. (2025). Rare disease gene association discovery in the 100,000 Genomes Project. nameOfConference


  • Magavern EF, Marengo G, England PPAG et al. (2025). A United Kingdom nationally representative survey of public attitudes towards pharmacogenomics. nameOfConference


  • Magavern EF, Deshmukh H, Asselin G et al. (2025). GWAS of CRP response to statins further supports the role of APOE in statin response: A GIST consortium study. nameOfConference


  • Magavern EF, Deshmukh H, Asselin G et al. (2024). Pharmacogenomics of CRP response to statins: a GIST consortium study. nameOfConference


    QMRO: qmroHref
View profile publication page

Sponsors

My work is supported by the MRC, Barts Charity and the Barts NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, the NHS England Pharmacogenomics Network of Excellence and Genomics England.

Collaborators

News

Podcasts

Articles

  • Using genetic testing to improve medicines use after myocardial infarction (Hospital Healthcare)
  • Common heart medication less effective in south Asian People (The Conversation)
  • PGx variants linked to poor Plavix response in UK South Asians renews calls for expanding testing (Precision Medicine Online)
  • Clopidogrel genetics study (Barts Charity)
  • We're celebrating Internationals Women's Day (Barts Charity)
  • Medication used to prevent heart attacks may be ineffective for British South Asians (National Institute for Health and Care Research)
  • Blood thinner to treat heart disease proves ineffective for many South Asian patients due to a mutation in their DNA (Mail Online)
  • Women with 4 key key risk factors at much greater risk of killer blood clots, scientists discover (The Sun)

Patient resources

Prescriber resources

Teaching

Dr Magavern teaches for a number of Genomics MSc courses in and around London, including QMUL, Imperial and Cambridge. She is also involved in teaching pharmacology and pharmacogenomics to undergraduate and postgraduate doctors and other health care practitioners. 

Disclosures

No disclosures.

Back to top