Research groups
Thomas Littlejohns
BSc, MSc, PhD
Senior Epidemiologist
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.
Recent publications
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A common NFKB1 variant detected through antibody analysis in UK Biobank predicts risk of infection and allergy.
Journal article
Chong AY. et al, (2024), American journal of human genetics
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Assessing the importance of primary care diagnoses in the UK Biobank.
Journal article
Clifton L. et al, (2024), European journal of epidemiology
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Central Adiposity Increases Risk of Kidney Stone Disease via Effects on Serum Calcium Concentrations.
Journal article
Lovegrove CE. et al, (2023), Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN
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A foundation model for generalizable disease detection from retinal images.
Journal article
Zhou Y. et al, (2023), Nature
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Association between metabolic syndrome and risk of incident dementia in UK Biobank.
Journal article
Qureshi D. et al, (2023), Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association