Research
The Endocrine Unit at Imperial is an academic unit, and we have a large research portfolio, undertaking both basic and clinical research on all sites. Imperial tops the ISI/Thompson ratings for diabetes research publications. As an Academic Health Sciences Centre, our clinical work and research are truly integrated.
The Department has a high publication rate in prestigious international journals and these articles are very highly cited (in the 1980-89 period the laboratory was the most highly cited in Europe). The laboratory is internationally known for its work on gut hormones, carbohydrate metabolism, hypothalamic control mechanisms and regulation of cell growth.
The Department of Investigative Medicine focuses on intercellular regulatory systems and the way in which they are disturbed in human disease. The Unit has developed international expertise in the measurement synthesis and actions of regulatory peptides and applies this knowledge particularly to the study of hypothalamic, pituitary and islet of Langerhans function. Thus particular attention is paid to reproductive dysfunction, the effects of stress, mechanisms regulating appetite, metabolism and the major disease there of, Diabetes mellitus.
The Unit has been highly successful over the last year with a number of original observations throwing new light on the way the systems function. Grant funding has increased and the groups plan to focus activities on the 6th floor laboratories of the Commonwealth Building has been successfully completed. The exciting new basic science developments consequent, on the fusion of several medical schools to form the Faculty of Medicine of Imperial College London, offer exciting opportunities for future advance.
The department has extensive research facilities, including a full range of cell and molecular biology laboratories, and the laboratory is internationally renowned for its work on gut hormones, carbohydrate metabolism, hypothalamic control mechanisms and regulation of cell growth.
Academic Clinical Fellows have the opportunity to spend 3 months per year for the first two years, doing cutting edge research. The department has a history of developing these fellows into PhD students, who then go on to become Clinical Lecturers.