The PRECISE Network is hosted and co-ordinated by a team in the Department of Women and Children’s Health at Kings College London. Professor Peter von Dadelszen is the Principal Investigator for the overall PRECISE Network, Professor Laura Magee is a co-investigator for PRECISE, and they work closely with the central co-ordinating team to manage the programme.
Peter von Dadelszen is Professor of Global Women’s Health, King’s College London, UK. A New Zealander (and now Canadian), Peter is married to Laura Magee, Professor of Women’s Health at KCL, with whom he leads a pregnancy hypertension research group. With Laura, Peter was co-recipient of the 2014 International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy Chesley Award. Currently, they focus pregnancy hypertension, fetal growth and stillbirth, from basic science to clinical epidemiology and health services research to global health, primarily through the PRE-EMPT and PRECISE initiatives funded by the Gates Foundation and Research Councils of the UK, respectively.
Laura Magee is a general obstetric internist (Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology, Royal College of Canada). She has recently joined King’s College London, UK as Professor of Women’s Health following consultant posts at St. George’s, University of London, UK (2015-2017), and the Universities of British Columbia (2000-2015) and Toronto (1996-2000), Canada. Laura’s research is focused on pregnancy hypertension, particularly antihypertensive therapy. She is President-of the International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy (ISSHP) and President-Elect of the International Society of Obstetric Medicine (ISOM).
Dr. Hiten Mistry is a Senior Research Fellow and the Senior Research Programme Manager working on a range of global women’s health studies alongside Professors Peter von Dadelszen and Laura Magee, including PRECISE/PRECISE-DYAD. His main research interests are the pathophysiology of the hypertensive diseases of pregnancy and nutrition in pregnancy. Trained as a PhD scientist in Professor Fiona Broughton Pipkin’s lab, followed by 6 years as a PostDoc with Professor Lucilla Poston at KCL and Personal Fellowships at the Universities of Bern and Nottingham. Hiten was most recently a Research Development Manager, Faculty of Financial & Business Services, University of Nottingham coping with the institutional complications of the pandemic. As a scientist, Hiten’s practical competencies cover a range of molecular, biochemical, and biophysical techniques that complement his considerable experience in clinical studies, which include completion of ethics applications, consent, statistical analysis, and biobank development.
Since graduating with a degree in Biology, Rachel has spent 9 years working at the University of Oxford on various international and clinical studies. She has worked as a Research Assistant for the MalariaGEN Consortium genotyping samples for SNPs linked to natural protection against malaria. Then she moved into Project Management where she coordinated the INTERBIO-21st Study, a global initiative investigating the growth and development of infants from conception to the age of 2 years in high risk settings. Rachel led the implantation of this project across 7 international sites where clinical data, ultrasound images, anthropometric data and biological samples were collected for approximately 8000 women and children. More recently, she worked with the Oxford Vaccine Group where she manage clinical trials researching vaccine development and infectious diseases. Rachel joined the team in July 2018 where she manages the PRECISE and PRECISE-DYAD studies.
Dr. Marie-Laure Volvert completed her PhD in 2013 at Giga-Neuroscience, Belgium and then moved to London for a 3-year postdoc position at the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, King’s College London. Her research focused on understanding the development of the brain. Recently, she was the Scientific Affairs Manager in the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology. Her role focussed on coordination of the Centre’s funding applications, and provision of support and advice to academic staff. Marie-Laure was also responsible for the Centre’s external communication strategy and public engagement activities. She joined PRECISE as research co-ordinator, where she is responsible for the communication and project management of the study.
Giulia received her BSc in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience from the University of Westminster. Prior to working with us, she was a Research Assistant on the Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT) project which is a longitudinal study following 200 Gambian and 60 U.K. infants, looking at establishing brain function-for-age curves of infants in both settings to gain an insight into how multi factors such as malnutrition, social and environmental difficulties impact brain development. She also assisted in the coordination of the follow-up phase of the project (BRIGHT Kids) looking at brain development and malnutrition in the pre-school age.
Thomas is a Data Management expert and a data science enthusiast with diverse experience both local and international. He started his career in the Research domain in (2017) with the MRC@LSHTM Unit The Gambia as a Data Manager. He successfully worked on numerous projects (Clinical Trials, Observational Studies, and Surveys) and was an Operational Data analyst for the clinical Services, Labs and other departments within the unit. Before joining MRC@LSHTM, he worked at Standard Chartered Bank as a Remediation Analyst. His other previous roles include (QA Engineer) for a Swedish Internet Company and (Database Developer) developing Information systems projects for the World Bank, UNDP and the European Union in Guinea-Bissau. Thomas holds a Bsc in Business Information Technology from the University of Greenwich and a PgCert in IS Management from the University of Liverpool. He is highly passionate about knowledge sharing which has led him to mentor numerous young upcoming professionals.
Gillian joined KCL Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine in June 2022. Gillian is a 23 year old Public Health graduate relocating from Cork, Ireland to London. Gillian’s most recent role was an administration officer for the CEO of the South/Southwest Hospital group in Ireland. During her time in the South\Southwest group Gillian has worked directly with the CEO on tasks relating to Emergency Management, Patient Safety, Legislation and general queries within the hospital system.
Gillian will be supporting school research activities and closely work with Prof Laura Magee and Prof Peter Von Dadelszen on PRECISE research studies.
Amber joined the PRECISE Team following a brief stint in the Research & Development Office at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at the Denmark Hill campus. Prior to this, she worked as a Research Assistant with the Sexual Health Research Group in the King’s Centre for Global Health & Health Partnerships and as a Research Co-ordinator for the iFIND and Developing Human Connectome (dHCP) projects for the Department of Perinatal Imaging and Health at King’s. Amber holds a MA in Modern Languages (French and German) and a MSc in Psychology. Her Masters project focused on the physiological and psychological effects of the menstrual cycle on women’s consumer behaviour and she retains a strong personal interest in all aspects of women’s health
Marina is a midwife and maternal health researcher, with a special interest in low and middle-income countries. Within PRECISE she coordinates the research group investigating barriers to care, quality of care, and respectful care. With a background in the social sciences, Marina completed a PhD in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, during which she trialed an intervention to involve male partners in maternity care in Burkina Faso. Marina trained as a midwife in Trieste, Italy, and worked at St Thomas’ hospital in London from 2012.
Meriel is a global health research management specialist. Meriel previously worked at the Medical Research Council as Programme Manager for Global Health Strategy, developing collaborative and bilateral research funding partnerships with government, private and charity funders in the UK and across Asia, Africa and South America. Meriel was responsible for schemes in the Global Challenge Research and Newton Fund initiatives as well as UK ODA funded schemes the Joint Global Health Trials and Health Systems Research Initiative. Before joining the MRC Meriel worked at INGO’s including Oxfam and the International Childcare Trust.
Cristina was the Research Operations Officer for PRECISE, responsible for providing research and project management support. Previous to this she was a Department Manager at the University of London, where she acted as project coordinator for a number of multi-stakeholder projects. Cristina is a PRINCE2 qualified Project Manager and holds an MA from the University of Westminster. She is currently studying for a MSci in Bio-Medicine from Birkbeck College, University of London.
Dr. Anne Rerimoi is a paediatrician (MMed Paediatrics and child health Aga Khan University Nairobi Kenya) and an epidemiologist (PhD in epidemiology and population health London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) passionate about creating impact through improved survival and enhanced quality of life for children, adolescents and their families. She was most recently involved in redesigning child and adolescent health and wellbeing programmes at a global level with the World Health Organization. She is also keen on improving data quality and use in developing countries through assessment of existing methods and innovative development of population-based metrics.
