Skip to main content
Wolfson Institute of Population Health
  1. WIPH
  2. People
  3. Profiles

Professor Seif Shaheen, MB BS MA MRCP MSc PhD FFPH

Seif

Professor of Life Course Epidemiology

Email: s.shaheen@qmul.ac.uk

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.

Active research projects:

  • Is exposure to toxic metals contributing to ethnic and social health inequalities in children and young adults in the UK? (Funding: Medical Research Council).
  • Long-term lung function impact of RSV disease (Funding: Gates Foundation).
  • Is higher prenatal exposure to lead associated with an increased risk of violent and other criminal behaviour in adolescence and young adulthood? (Funding: Youth Endowment Fund).

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

Publications

VIew more publications here

  • Aagaard K, Pedersen C-ET, Horner D et al. (2026). Genetic investigation of the association between maternal dietary patterns and offspring ADHD. nameOfConference


    QMRO: qmroHref
  • Talaei M, Pagoni P, Stergiakouli E et al. (2026). Comorbidity of asthma and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in childhood: causal, shared early-life risk factors, or shared genetic liability?. nameOfConference


    QMRO: qmroHref
  • Hokey E, Callanan S, Delahunt A et al. (2026). Anaemia and Maternal Iron Intakes in Pregnancy and Child Asthma: An Observational Analysis From a Longitudinal Cohort. nameOfConference


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


    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


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


    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


  • Portas L, Talaei M, Dean C et al. (2025). Lung development genes, adult lung function and cardiovascular comorbidities. nameOfConference


  • 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


  • 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


    QMRO: qmroHref
View profile publication page
Back to top