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Professor Keith Godfrey

NIHR BRC Theme Lead for Nutrition, Lifestyle & Metabolism, Professor of Epidemiology and Human Development, Honorary Consultant, University Hospital Southampton NHS FT, Director, Centre for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, NIHR Senior Investigator, Visiting Professor, National University of Singapore

Keith is committed to better wellbeing, health and healthcare across the lifecourse through evidence-based nutrition policy, guidance and care, directing our research driving this.

Keith’s research aims to understand and optimise nutrition and lifestyle for women and their partners before and during pregnancy, enabling the best start to life for their unborn babies, infants and children.

His research in the Southampton Women's Survey has shown that epigenetic mechanisms (affecting how and when genes are expressed) link the mothers’ diet and lifestyle before/during pregnancy to their children's development, amounts of fat and lean tissue, and later-life risk of cardiovascular disease.

This work complements Keith’s ongoing research in the NiPPeR study and other nutrition trials, following his demonstration that maternal obesity, excess pregnancy weight gain, poor diets, low vitamin D status and early cessation of breastfeeding are linked with increased childhood obesity risk.

An NIHR Senior Investigator, Keith holds multiple international and international roles on expert panels, advisory boards and is Treasurer & Trustee for the International Society for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease.

 

Roles

  • Lifecourse Nutrition, Lifestyle and Health theme lead, NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre 
  • Professor of Epidemiology and Human Development
  • Director, Centre for Developmental Origins of Health & Disease
  • Honorary Consultant, University Hospital Southampton NHS FT

Other profile information