MRC Epidemiology Unit
The latest news from the MRC Epidemiology Unit
Welcome to 2025 issue 3 of epigram, the quarterly newsletter from the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge.
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Matters of the mind and body
From participants to proteomics to psychology, we’re learning how our minds, bodies and behaviours shape our health.
Accept and commit
Why some people maintain their weight loss and others don’t, particularly when they’ve completed the same programme, is a subject of interest to Dr Laura Kudlek, who recently completed her PhD at the Unit.
In this blog, Laura discusses the implications of two new research papers she led while a PhD student, examining the impact of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on eating behaviour traits and weight loss.
It’s never too late …
There’s always a chance to improve your physical activity and diet, reducing your chances of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Researchers from the MRC Epidemiology Unit analysed data from more than nine thousand EPIC-Norfolk participants whose physical activity energy expenditure and Mediterranean diet score were derived from repeated measurements between 1993 and 2004. They found that both those who started the study with healthy habits, and those who improved and then maintained their physical activity and diet over time, had a lower risk of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes over the 30 years of the study.
Lead author, Dr Shayan Aryannezhad was interviewed about this study for ITV Anglia: you can read more the research on our website.
Shedding light on the differences between the sexes
A new analysis of the relative abundance of nearly 6,000 different human proteins in blood samples from the Fenland and UK Biobank studies finds that while the levels of two-thirds of these proteins differed between males and females, in only a very small fraction could this be attributed to differences between the sexes in the genetic ‘switches’ which control their levels.
Lead author Dr Mine Koprulu was a PhD student at the MRC Epidemiology when much of this analysis was undertaken, and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Queen Mary’s PHURI. Read more here.
Supporting science – from storage to surveys
From biological sample processing to facilitating researchers’ access to resources, we’re setting the standard for processing and storage.
Detecting Alzheimer’s disease
The MRC Epidemiology Unit’s BioRepository sample storage and processing facilities has provided research support for studies and trials since 2017.
The facility recently featured in a BBC Look East report about Dr Maura Malpetti’s ON-FIRE Study, which is developing a new blood test to detect frontotemporal dementia, a form, of Alzheimer’s disease, long before symptoms appear. ON-FIRE uses hundreds of participants’ blood samples, which are stored at the BioRepository.
If you’re looking for reliable, high-quality biological sample processing and storage services, while reducing energy costs and carbon footprint, you should contact the BioRepository at the MRC Epidemiology Unit. The facility supports research studies and trials with a dedicated team and state-of-the-art facilities at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and Research Park.
Supporting dietary insights
Key dietary recommendations – including those for fruit & veg, vitamin D, fibre, folate and iodine – are still not being met by many in the UK population. That’s the finding of the latest UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) report, published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and covering 2019-2023. The report also finds clear dietary inequalities, with those in the most deprived areas tending to have poorer diets.
The NDNS is carried out jointly by the MRC Epidemiology Unit and National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).
The Unit also administers the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) Bioresource, which has been established to facilitate researcher access to valuable resources held within the UK NDNS collection, which contains samples of urine, plasma, serum and washed erythrocytes from the current NDNS rolling programme (RP) and urinary sodium surveys in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Dates for your diary
Prevention Research 2026
Population Health Improvement UK and the UKPRP Prevention Research Network are proud to co-host the second Prevention Research Conference.
Join us at Vox in Birmingham, 4-5 March 2026 to explore the latest research and collaborative strategies for preventing non-communicable diseases and reducing health inequalities across the UK.
This event is open to the prevention research community, whether you are conducting research into the primary prevention of non-communicable diseases, developing interventions to reduce health inequalities and illness, or using this research to improve policy or service delivery.
Numbers will be limited due to expected high demand, so please register your interest early to stay updated on submission deadlines and speaker announcements.
Bradford Hill Seminar
At our next hybrid Bradford Hill Seminar, Professor James Flanagan of Imperial college London will discuss the Cancer Loyalty Card Study (CLOCS), which aims to help reduce the delays in cancer diagnosis using transaction data
The seminar is at 13:00 (GMT) on Wednesday 2 July 2025.
Health and sustainability – from local to global
Challenges of improving health often go hand in hand with challenges of sustainability. Our researchers are meeting these challenges in the UK and around the world.
Healthy, sustainable hospital food
At Birmingham Children’s Hospital, researchers from the Mandala Consortium are studying how we might improve the healthiness and sustainability of food for children in hospital, while maintaining or improving the nutritional value, the dishes’ appeal, and related costs.
The Mandala Consortium focuses on transforming urban food systems for planetary and population health, and is led by Professor Martin White, Professor of Population Health Research in the MRC Epidemiology Unit and includes teams from the Universities of Cambridge, Birmingham, Warwick, Exeter, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Urban Health in Africa
The Global Diet and Activity Research Network (GDAR) is working to prevent non-communicable diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancers, in low and middle income countries.
The network is a collaboration of researchers from ten organisations in seven countries on three continents, funded by the NIHR Global Health Research initiative.
A great example of the work the GDAR researchers do has been published in a new book on Urban Health in Africa, published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bill Gates Sr. Prize for outstanding student
Congratulations to Anwesha Lahiri, a PhD student with our Nutritional Epidemiology programme, and Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge, who was co-awarded this year’s Bill Gates Sr. Prize. The Prize is awarded annually to Gates Cambridge Scholars who demonstrate outstanding contributions to academia, the Gates Cambridge community, and the wider world.
Anwesha was nominated for her leadership, in terms of her research and her roles as Vice-President and President of the Gates Cambridge Scholars Council.
One nominator highlighting how she “shines a spotlight on historically underrepresented groups and speaks directly to the Gates mission of improving lives through science and leadership”.
Blogging, vlogging, and podding
Through a series of blogs, videos, and The Confidence Interval Podcast, we explore the research happening at the Unit. Hearing from our researchers as they talk science, people, and population health. We have a plethora of podcasts for you in this edition of epigram!
Crossing Channels
Professor Martin White guests in the Bennett Institute for Public Policy’s podcast, Crossing
Channels. In this episode, Martin and Jonathan Stieglitz discuss the question: how can we create food systems that are good for our health, our communities, the planet, and the economy?
Listen to the Crossing Channels podcast
What’s Up Docs?
In two episodes, Professor Nita Forouhi chats to the BBC’s Dr Chris and Xand van Tulleken about which groups of people might need more protein in their diets and how to best optimise our protein intake.
FOODCastS
In the second episode of the FOODCastS series from FOODPaths, Professor Nita Forouhi discusses Planetary Health Diet and her work as a member of the EAT Lancet Commission.
Listen to the FOODCastS podcast
The Confidence Interval Podcast
In The Confidence Interval – from the UN to weight loss research, Dr Marie Spreckley shares her journey from the UN to weight loss research. She discusses diverse communities being more involved in research programmes, how drugs for type 2 diabetes are being used for weight loss, and the future of her research.
Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Buzzsprout, Spotify, and YouTube.
Our publications
The MRC Epidemiology Unit is committed to Open Access and to making our research more accessible, equitable, transparent and reproducible. We aim for all MRC Epidemiology Unit-led papers to be fully available through Open Access as we continue to break down any barriers to knowledge.
You can find all publications from the MRC Epidemiology Unit on our Publications Database: https://publications.mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk/
You can search by journal, year, study, programme, Unit author, and keywords in the title and abstract.
After a bit of a break, we’re also pleased to be able to provide a round-up of recent publications. Below you can find all papers that have been published so far in 2025.
- Combined associations of physical activity, diet quality and their trajectories with incidence of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in the EPIC-Norfolk Study. Aryannezhad S et al. Sci Rep.
- Development of inequalities in fruit and vegetable intake through early adulthood: insights from household panel surveys in the United Kingdom and Australia. Braune T et al. Eur J Clin Nutr.
- Impact of supervised aerobic exercise training on habitual physical activity in healthy older adults: the Hertfordshire physical activity randomised controlled trial. Finucane FM et al. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med.
- Thiamine Concentration in Human Milk Is Correlated With Maternal and Infant Thiamine Status: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Lao Thiamine Study. Hess SY et al. Matern Child Nutr.
- Understanding the socio-spatial distribution of “dark retail” in England: Development of a unique retail location dataset. Huang Y et al. Health Place.
- Neighbourhood out-of-home food environment, menu healthiness, and their associations with meal purchasing and diet quality: a multiverse analysis. Huang Y et al. Nutr J.
- Menu item prices and promotions offered on a meal delivery app in the United Kingdom and their socioeconomic patterns. Huang Y et al. Public Health Nutrition.
- Understanding the mechanisms by which residential relocation affects changes in cycling: A theory-building process tracing approach. Kienst-von Einem C et al. Travel behaviour and Society.
- Sex differences in the genetic regulation of the human plasma proteome. Koprulu M et al. Nat Commun.
- Individual participant data meta-analysis of eating behaviour traits as effect modifiers in acceptance and commitment therapy-based weight management interventions. Kudlek L et al. Int J Obes (Lond).
- An individual participant data meta-analysis investigating the mediating role of eating behavior traits in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-based weight management interventions. Kudlek L et al. Ann Behav Med.
- Physical Activity Inequalities in Later Life Consortium. Correlates and determinants of physical activity among older adults of lower versus higher socio-economic status: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Malkowski OS et al. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act.
- Associations between 24-hour movement compositions and cardiometabolic health in children and adolescents: a five-part compositional analysis using data from the International Children’s Accelerometery Database (ICAD). Marshall ZA et al. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med.
- Genetic determinants of proteomic aging. Mörseburg A et al. NPJ Aging.
- Exercise without Weight Loss Prevents Seasonal Decline in Vitamin D Metabolites: The VitaDEx Randomized Controlled Trial. Perkin OJ et al. Adv Sci (Weinh).
- Paving the way for improved action: how nuclear techniques can advance the assessment of malnutrition. Shertukde SP et al. Am J Clin Nutr.
- Association between patient activation, self-management behaviours and clinical outcomes in adults with type 2 diabetes: a systematic review with narrative synthesis. Thinakaran K et al. BMJ Open.
- “Stop, don’t touch, run away!”: reconceptualizing firearm industry-funded youth education programs as corporate political activity. van Schalkwyk MCI et al. Global Health.
About epigram
epigram is the newsletter for everyone interested in work happening at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge.
We welcome your views on it. Email us at comms@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk
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