Child Health PhD

Overview

The Department of Women’s and Children’s Health is internationally renowned for research covering obstetrics, gynaecology, neonatology, and medical and surgical paediatrics.

Based in a vibrant new state-of-the-art Institute in the Park at Alder Hey, Child Health research in Liverpool is predominantly focussed and led by young senior clinical academics with established teams and considerable income streams.

Our main research facilities are integrated with two of the largest specialist Women’s and Children’s hospitals in Europe, the Centre for Women’s Health research within the Liverpool Women’s Hospital and Institute in the Park within the Alder Hey Hospital.

The Department of Children’s Health is internationally renowned for its research and has specialist groups covering obstetrics, gynaecology, neonatology and medical and surgical paediatrics.

Paediatric Respiratory and Cystic Fibrosis

NIHR and Wellcome funding supports longstanding programmes on RSV bronchiolitis and cystic fibrosis, and newer programmes on asthma and aspiration lung disease. Much of this research utilises cells and tissues from the lungs of children to create disease relevant models of infection and inflammation.

Paediatric Rheumatology

The Clinical Academic Department of Paediatric Rheumatology has become one of UK’s leading Paediatric Rheumatology Research Centres and is part of Liverpool’s EULAR Centre of Excellence for Rheumatology. Liverpool is the UK's only Centre of Excellence for Childhood Lupus. It leads national collaborative research networks in many rheumatological conditions and is a major contributor to all national paediatric rheumatology research initiatives and many international collaborations.

Paediatric Pharmacology

Liverpool is one of the few national centres supporting the development of paediatric clinical pharmacology. There are very close links with the Wolfson Centre for Personalised Medicines and the Centre for Drug Safety Sciences, also in Liverpool.

Neonatal Medicine

Strong links with both obstetric and child health underpin a perinatal approach to neonatal research activity. Neonatal research is focused on translational medicine and clinical therapeutics for newborn babies, with Liverpool leading a recently appointed European-wide network for neonatal and paediatric clinical trials.

Paediatric Neurodisability and International Child Health

Strong links with the Sanyu Research Unit has enabled knowledge transfer between rich and poor settings and the development technologies and techniques to improve child health globally.

Paediatric Surgery

Paediatric surgical research in Liverpool centres on strong collaboration between academic surgeons and basic science researchers. This has led to world class research into the aetiology, pathology and treatment of major congenital malformations including congenital diaphragmatic hernia and Hirschsprung’s disease.

Paediatric Nephrology

With strong links to the Rheumatology group, Paediatric Nephrology research is focussed on developing an inter-disciplinary, collaborative ‘Renal inflammation and injury’ translational programme.