Prof Melissa Westwood BSc, PhD (Manchester)

Professor of Endocrinology, Associate Vice-President (Research)

Affiliations:

Division of Developmental Biology & Medicine (L5), Division of Developmental Biology & Medicine
Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, School of Biological Sciences
Office of the President and Vice Chancellor (L5), Office of the President & Vice Chancellor

Links:

Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Research Theme

Email:

melissa.westwood@manchester.ac.uk

Phone: 0161 276 5461

Full contact details

ORCID: 0000-0001-9725-7010

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Biography

Melissa is Professor of Endocrinology (2015) and Associate Vice-President for Research (2018). She is also Academic Director of the University’s MRC-funded Doctoral Training Partnership. Previously, she was Associate Dean for Postgraduate Research in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health (2015-18) and Lead of the Centre for Women's Health in the Faculty's Institute of Human Development (2011-2015).

Melissa graduated from the University of Manchester with a first class honours degree in Anatomical Sciences in 1991 and began her PhD studies, also at the University of Manchester, on the role of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) axis in diabetes. However, an unexpected finding led her into pregnancy research and she was awarded a prestigious Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (1997) to pursue her PhD findings, which resulted in a number of key studies relating to IGF function in normal and compromised pregnancies. ‘Finding solutions to pregnancy problems’ became the focus of her research; her current interests, funded through Research Council and UK charities, include the influence of maternal hormonal and nutritional signals on implantation and placental development/function, aiming to develop new strategies for clinical intervention.

Melissa is an elected member of the Council of the Society for Endocrinology and a member of the International Federation of the Placenta Association's Executive Committee. She serves on the Editorial Board for Placenta and the Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease.