New Deputy Director, Professor Jackie Price

As Professor Harry Campbell takes a step back after many years as both Deputy Director of the Usher Institute and co-Head of the Centre for Global Health, Professors Jackie Price and Harish Nair take on the roles.

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Professor Jackie Price, Deputy Director of the Usher Institute

Jackie Price is Professor of Molecular Epidemiology, an honorary consultant in public health medicine, NHS Lothian and Deputy Director of the Usher Institute. She is co-ordinating editor of the Cochrane Vascular Review Group, Edinburgh lead for the UK-based UCLEB Collaboration on applied genomics and Postgraduate Research Director for the Usher Institute. 

Professor Price has long standing experience in many aspects of evidence-based medicine and molecular epidemiology with a particular long term interest in the vascular and non-vascular complications of type 2 diabetes.  She has explored the effect of aspirin on age-related cognitive decline in people with asymptomatic atherosclerosis, in the first major clinical trial of its kind, and has developed population-based studies and biobanks in several human populations, including the Edinburgh Type 2 Diabetes Study with core funding  from MRC.   Recent projects have explored circulating, genetic and retinal image-based biomarkers for age-related cognitive decline, renal dysfunction, dementia, liver disease and macrovascular disease in people with type 2 diabetes, including their potential use in risk prediction. She is also a member of numerous national and international collaborations, notably on global burden of disease, asymptomatic vascular disease and -omics. 

Professor Harish Nair, co-Head of the Centre for Global Health

Professor Harish Nair joins Professor Igor Rudan as co-Head of the Centre for Global Health. Professor Harish Nair is Chair of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health and leads the Respiratory Viral Epidemiology research programme at the University of Edinburgh. He has led several large collaborative projects on global child health and infectious diseases. He currently leads (and is the co-ordinator of) the REspiratory Syncytial virus Consortium in EUrope (RESCEU) and the Respiratory Virus Global Epidemiology Network (RSV GEN). He also leads the Infectious Diseases Research Programme in the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health (RESPIRE). He is a co-founder of ReSViNET. In 2019, Professor Nair was awarded the Principal’s Medal for Exceptional Service by the University of Edinburgh; and the Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) Award by the NRI Society of India.