Cambridge Conversations: Transforming children's healthcare through genomics, mind-body research and treatment
Cambridge Conversations: Transforming children's healthcare through genomics, mind-body research and treatment
A child’s illness affects their whole life, and their whole being. At Cambridge, our researchers and clinicians are working to ensure that disease is diagnosed accurately and early, and, better still, avoided altogether. Enabled by the world’s largest public health service, Cambridge studies on a grand scale are leading to breakthroughs in genomic testing and treatment, even before a child is born. Early intervention across diseases of the mind and body ensures the best outcomes for children and young people. We cannot separate mental and physical health, nor can we treat one without the other. As our pre-eminent research teams collaborate for children’s health and wellbeing, they are also using their expertise to plan the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital — a world-first centre, with research at its heart and the mission to improve physical and mental health of children and young people everywhere.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope, was in conversation with Professor David Rowitch, neurobiologist and Head of Paediatrics, and Tamsin Ford CBE, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Together they will discuss recent developments in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of children’s illness, and the impact of integrating mental and physical healthcare.
Speakers
Professor Stephen J Toope (Trinity 1983)
Professor Stephen J Toope OC, LL.D. is 346th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, the first non-UK national to hold the post. He was Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, and President, the University of British Columbia. A former Dean of Law, McGill University, Toope was also Chair of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.
Professor Toope publishes in global journals on human rights, international dispute resolution, international environmental law, the use of force, and international legal theory, and has lectured at universities around the world.
His current book project with Professor Jutta Brunnée explores mechanisms and processes fostering stability and change in international law.
Professor Tamsin Ford CBE
Professor Tamsin Ford is an internationally renowned Child Psychiatric Epidemiologist who researches the organisation, delivery, and effectiveness of services and interventions for children and young people’s mental health.
Her work is inherently translational and cross-disciplinary, and focuses on how to promote mental health, prevent mental ill-health and respond effectively to children and young people who are currently struggling. After completing her PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, she moved to Exeter University Medical School in 2007, where she helped to recruit mental health researchers working across the life-span in addition to developing a thriving Child Mental Health Research Group.
Tamsin’s research covers the full range of psychopathology and agencies, practitioners and interventions that relate to the mental health of children and young people. Her work has direct relevance to policy, commissioning and practice. She led the clinical rating for the national child mental health survey, which provided child mental health statistics for the NHS Plan.
Tamsin was awarded a CBE for services to Psychiatry in 2019. She provides research advice to Place2Be and is a board member of ACAMH.
Prof. David Rowitch (Clare 1984)
Prof. Rowitch is Head of the University’s Department of Paediatrics, academic lead for the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital, and holds a joint appointment in paediatrics and neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. Prof. Rowitch is a clinician-scientist using genomic technologies to develop new diagnostics and treatments, including gene and cell therapies, for genetic neurological disorders in children, such as cerebral palsy and leukodystrophy. He led the first human clinical trial of stem cell transplantation for the fatal leukodystrophy, Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease. Prof. Rowitch sits on the US National Advisory Council for Children’s Health and Human Development (NACHHD) and is ‘Genomics Champion’ for the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges in the UK.