Professor Seif Shaheen, MB BS MA MRCP MSc PhD FFPH

Profile

I read medical sciences at St John’s College, Cambridge and qualified in medicine at Guy’s Hospital London in 1984. After training in general medicine I joined the MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit in Southampton and was awarded a Wellcome Trust Training Fellowship in Clinical Epidemiology in 1990. I completed an MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a PhD under the guidance of David Barker FRS, who nurtured my interest in the early life origins of respiratory disease.  After undertaking research in West Africa, I joined Peter Burney’s group as a Lecturer in 1995, before becoming Senior Lecturer and Asthma UK Senior Research Fellow. In 2010 I moved from the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, to take up my current appointment at Queen Mary. I am no longer clinically active.

I currently lead the Life Course Epidemiology Group in the Centre for Preventive Neurology in the Wolfson Institute of Population Health. Outside of work I write short stories and front a covers band, Seif and the Sound.

In addition to undergraduate teaching and mentoring I contribute to the Epidemiology and Statistics module of the MSc in Global Health.

I am an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the Allergy and Lung Health Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Australia.

Research Group Members: Dr Mohammad Talaei (lecturer), Dr Tra Bui (Postdoctoral Research Fellow)

Public Engagement activities include a stop motion animation about famous epidemiologists.

Research

Research Interests:

My highly collaborative research programme focuses on aetiology, especially in relation to the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. I have extensive cohort experience, including a 27-year collaboration with the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), research in the Born in Bradford and UK Biobank cohorts, and I helped to set up the nationwide COVIDENCE UK cohort to investigate risk factors for COVID-19. I have expertise in life course, respiratory, genetic and nutritional epidemiology, and more recently have developed interests in cognitive function and toxic metal epidemiology.

Recent and current research includes investigating:

• The relation between childhood diet and respiratory outcomes in the ALSPAC birth cohort. (Funding: Rosetrees Trust and the Bloom Foundation).
• The relation between lung development genes and comorbidities in UK Biobank, and whether shared genetics or early life risk factors explain the link between childhood asthma and ADHD in ALSPAC. (Funding: Barts Charity).
• Risk factors for COVID-19 in the COVIDENCE UK cohort (Funding: Barts Charity).
• Whether exposure to toxic metals is contributing to adverse health outcomes and social and ethnic health inequalities across multiple English cohorts (Funding: Medical Research Council).

I welcome enquiries from potential PhD students (self-funded) and postdoctoral researchers.

Publications

VIew more publications here

• Goldman-Pham R, Alter MP, Bao R et al. (publicationYear). Quantifying the impact of early life growth adversity on later life health. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1038/s43856-025-01245-3

  
  

  QMRO: qmroHref
• Chang AB, Gray DM, Boonjindasup W et al. (2025). The impact of child and adolescent health on adult respiratory health: the evidence, gaps and priorities. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1183/16000617.0044-2025

  
  

  QMRO: qmroHref
• Burney P, Amaral A, Shaheen S (2025). The importance of using appropriate reference ranges in spirometry. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/s2213-2600(25)00191-2

  
  

  QMRO: qmroHref
• Vivaldi G, Talaei M, Blaikley J et al. (2025). Bidirectional relationship between sleep problems and long COVID: a longitudinal analysis of data from the COVIDENCE UK study. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1136/bmjresp-2024-002506

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/107552
• Portas L, Talaei M, Dean C et al. (2025). Lung development genes, adult lung function and cardiovascular comorbidities. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1136/thorax-2024-222474

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/107292
• Vivaldi G, Talaei M, Pfeffer PE et al. (2025). COVID-19 severity and risk of SARS-CoV-2-associated asthma exacerbation by time since booster vaccination: a longitudinal analysis of data from the COVIDENCE UK study. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1136/bmjresp-2025-003158

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/106996
• Goldman-Pham R, Collins, Stanojevic S et al. (2025). Association of Lung Growth With a Novel Index of Early-life Growth Conditions Deployable in Adulthood. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1164/ajrccm.2025.211.abstracts.a2883

  
  

  QMRO: qmroHref
• Mongey R, van der Plaat DA, Shaheen SO et al. (2025). Effect of vitamin A on adult lung function: a triangulation of evidence approach. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1136/thorax-2024-222622

  
  

  QMRO: qmroHref
• Janson C, Shaheen SO (2025). Chapter 5 Infection. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-443-13922-2.00005-7

  
  

  QMRO: qmroHref
• Shaheen SO (2025). Chapter 8 Early life origins of impaired adult lung function∗. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-443-13922-2.00008-2

  
  

  QMRO: qmroHref