About us

The Centre welcomes anyone and everyone who is concerned with the wellbeing of children, whether as a researcher, clinician, and educator of whatever discipline. We aim to reach out across College and West London to foster collaboration for the benefit of the present and future generations of children, our most precious asset.

Our mission

We will be the voice for children within Imperial College London and beyond, working closely with our NHS colleagues across West London, to

  1. Drive forward world-class, multidisciplinary research in all aspects of newborn and child health, and the genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors which subvert child development. We will work in partnership with children and families to advance research and to champion the rights of all children to be involved in research that will benefit children.
  2. Ensure an environment which will nurture the next generation of clinicians and scientists who will advance high quality, ethical paediatric research 
  3. Promote excellent holistic undergraduate and postgraduate education to equip our trainees to be inquisitive and able to contribute to advances in paediatrics and child health,  promoting healthy development and the early identification of disease in future generations of children
  4. Engage with children, young people and the community, to promote science and medicine, and facilitate their access to the incredible opportunities at Imperial College      

While striving for these aims, we will energetically oppose all forms of discrimination, whether based on gender, orientation, race or any other factor, and whether such discrimination limits the ability of a child to achieve their potential, or stands in the way of academic or clinical staff gaining the recognition and progress that they merit.

Centre leadership

Centre leadership

  • Professor Sejal Saglani

    Professor Sejal Saglani

    Personal details

    Professor Sejal Saglani Director; Professor of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine

    +44 (0)20 7594 3167

    Location

    368, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, South Kensington Campus

    Bio

    Sejal Saglani leads the Paediatric Severe Asthma Group within the Section of Inflammation, Repair and Development and is Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, Royal Brompton Hospital.

  • Dr Padmanabhan Ramnarayan

    Personal details

    Dr Padmanabhan Ramnarayan Deputy Director; Reader in Paediatric Critical Care

    Location

    508, 5th Floor, Medical School, St Mary's Campus

    Bio

    Dr Ramnarayan is Reader in Paediatric Critical Care at Imperial College and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Intensive Care at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, with expertise in Retrieval medicine, genetic susceptibility to infections, non-invasive ventilation

  • Professor Aubrey Cunnington

    Dr Aubrey Cunnington

    Personal details

    Professor Aubrey Cunnington Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases

    +44 (0)20 7594 3695

    Location

    244, Norfolk Place, St Mary's Campus

    Bio

    Dr Aubrey Cunnington is the Head of the Section and Professr of Paediatric Infectious Disease, and also an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at St Mary's Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

  • Dr Dougal Hargreaves

    Personal details

    Dr Dougal Hargreaves Houston Reader in Paediatrics and Population Health

    Location

    326, 3rd Floor, Reynolds Building, Charing Cross Campus

    Bio

    Dougal Hargreaves is a Houston Reader in Paediatrics and Population Health at Imperial College School and a Health Foundation Improvement Science Fellow at the UCL Institute of Child Health.

  • Dr Harry Leitch

    Dr Harry Leitch

    Personal details

    Dr Harry Leitch Clinical Lecturer

    +44 (0)208 383 8823

    Location

    2nd Floor, CRB (Clinical Research Building), Hammersmith Campus

    Bio

    Harry Leitch is an Academic Clinical Fellow in Clinical Genetics in the Institute for Clinical Sciences, and leads the Germline & Pluripotency group at the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences.

  • Dr Simon Nadel

    Simon Nadel headshot smiling

    Personal details

    Dr Simon Nadel Consultant in Paediatric Intensive Care

    Location

    Imperial College Healthcare Trust (St Mary's) 

    Bio

    Dr Simon Nadel has been a consultant in children's intensive care at St Mary's hospital since 1994 and holds an adjunct professorship in paediatric intensive care medicine with Imperial College.  

  • Dr Deena-Shefali Patel

    Deena profile photo smiling

    Personal details

    Dr Deena-Shefali Patel Honorary Lecturer

    Location

    Department of Infectious Disease, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG

     

     

    Bio

    Deena-Shefali Patel is an Honorary Lecturer and the Lead for the Applied Paediatrics programme at Imperial College London. She is a Consultant Neonatologist at the Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust.

  • Dr Vanessa Sancho-Shimizu

    Personal details

    Dr Vanessa Sancho-Shimizu Lecturer

    +44 (0)20 7594 3914

    Location

    309, Norfolk Place, St Mary's Campus

    Bio

    Dr Vanessa Sancho-Shimizu is currently working on understanding the Mendelian predisposition to rare childhood infections specifically: identifying genes underlying childhood (1) herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE), (2) severe viral infections, and (3) invasive meningococcal disease (IMD).

  • Professor Mireille Toledano

    Professor Mireille Toledano

    Personal details

    Professor Mireille Toledano Mohn Chair; Population Child Health & Director-Mohn Centre

    Location

    525, Medical School, St Mary's Campus

    Bio

    Professor Mireille Toledano is an epidemiologist with wide-ranging interests in the health effects of environmental exposures, with particular focus on environmental-omics exposures in the reproductive period, and early life through to adolescence.

  • Dr Elizabeth Whittaker

    Liz Whittaker smiling

    Personal details

    Dr Elizabeth Whittaker Director of Research - West London Children's Healthcare

    Location

    Paediatrics, Norfolk Place, St Mary's campus

    Affiliations

    Dr Liz Whittaker is Senior Clinical Lecturer in paediatric infectious diseases and immunology. She divides her time between Imperial College London and the Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology, St. Marys Hospital, London where she is a Consultant. 

    She has recently been appointed Director of Research for West London Children's Healthcare.

International Advisory Board

Professor Frank Bloomfield
Director, Liggins Institute
Professor of Neonatology, The University of Auckland, Auckland 

Professor Shoo K. Lee, OC, DHC, PhD, FRCPC, MBBS
Professor of Paediatrics, Obstetrics & Gynecology, and Public Health, University of Toronto
Neonatologist & Director of The Maternal Infant Care Research Center (MiCARE), Mount Sinai Hospital; Toronto, Ontario Canada

Professor Berthold Koletzko
Professor of Paediatrics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, LMU University Hospitals, Muenchen, Germany

Professor Colleen A. Kraft, MD, MBA, FAAP
Professor of Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California
2018 President, American Academy of Pediatrics
Division of General Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Professor Melissa Wake, Paediatrician FAHMS MBChB FRACP MD GradDip Obst & Gynae
Scientific Director, GenV & Group Leader, Prevention Innovation
Professorial Fellow, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne
Honorary Professor, Dept of Paediatrics & Liggins Institute, The University of Auckland
Group Leader, Murdoch Children's Research Institute