Thomas Littlejohns

I joined the Translational Epidemiology Unit (TEU) in 2021 to work as a senior epidemiologist. My main area of interest is investigating risk factors for dementia, with a particular focus on research that produces translatable findings with a public health benefit. This includes identifying modifiable factors that can be potentially targeted for dementia prevention.

I am also involved in research which addresses similar questions for non-dementia outcomes, in particular cancer, cardiovascular disease and other common chronic diseases.    

I primarily use the UK Biobank dataset, a population-based cohort of half a million participants with a diversity of phenotypic and genetic data measured. I am also interested in using other cohorts to either replicate or complement analyses conducted using UK Biobank.  

I am a module lead for the Principles of Epidemiology module as part of the MSc in Global Health Science and Epidemiology.

Before joining the TEU, I worked as an epidemiologist for the Nuffield Department of Population Health (NDPH)-based UK Biobank scientific team between 2014-2021. Prior to joining NDPH, I completed a PhD at the University of Exeter on hormonal risk factors for late-onset dementia.