Research Centres

Tommy's has established three centres of excellence for Maternal and Fetal Health Research, led by Tommy’s Professors.  These centres provide a focus for pregnancy health research within the UK and act as a training centre for both clinicians and scientists.

The multi-disciplinary teams in our research centres combine the skill and expertise of clinicians, midwives and scientists in a unique research environment.  This setting allows work to be carried out on a wide variety of projects from scientific laboratory based studies, through to clinical trials involving treating women. 

Tommy’s Maternal and Fetal Health Research Unit located at St Thomas’ Hospital in London is led by Professor Lucilla Poston, who was appointed as the UK’s first Professor of Maternal and Fetal Health in 1995. 

The Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre was established at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester in March 2001, as part of a joint initiative between Tommy’s and the University of Manchester.  The team is led by Professor Colin Sibley.

Our third research centre is based at The Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, and opened early 2008. The key focus of the Edinburgh centre's work is on discovering ways to alleviate the risks and problems caused by maternal obesity. The Edinburgh team is led by Professor Jane Norman and Professor Andrew Calder.

Find out more about Tommy’s Professors and their research interests, by taking a look at their biographies in the media centre section of our website.

Tommy's undertakes an audit of our research centres every two years by independent experts in the field. The most recent audit took place in December 2005 by three professors, all of whom head up research centres in North America. Their reports were a glowing endorsement of Tommy's research funding strategy and excerpts are shown on the research centre pages.