Professor Seif Shaheen, MA MRCP MSc PhD FFPH
Clinical Professor of Respiratory Epidemiology
email: s.shaheen@qmul.ac.uk
Phone: +44 20 7882 2480
Fax: +44 20 7882 2552
Website: http://www.icms.qmul.ac.uk/
PA: Philippa Kirk
Tel: +44 020 7882 7325
p.j.kirk@qmul.ac.uk
Centre for Primary Care and Public Health
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
Postal address:
2 Newark Street
Whitechapel
London
E1 2AT
Seif Shaheen is Clinical Professor of Respiratory Epidemiology in the Centre for Health Sciences, and is a principal investigator at the MRC and Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma (http://www.asthma-allergy.ac.uk/cvs.aspx?id=96).
He read medical sciences at St John’s College, Cambridge and qualified in medicine at Guy’s Hospital London. After training in general medicine he joined the MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit in Southampton as a Wellcome Trust Training Fellow in Clinical Epidemiology. He completed an MSc at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a PhD under the guidance of David Barker FRS, which nurtured his interest in the early life origins of respiratory disease. After a period of research in West Africa he joined Peter Burney’s group, most recently at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, where he was an Asthma UK Senior Research Fellow.
Research interests:
Seif’s programme of collaborative research is focused on understanding how environmental influences such as diet, throughout the lifecourse, interact with genes to influence the development and severity of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He is particularly interested in the role of the prenatal environment and epigenetics. In 2000 he proposed that frequent paracetamol use may be a risk factor for asthma, a link which has since been confirmed in many epidemiological studies. The broad aim of his aetiological research is, through observational epidemiology and randomised controlled trials, to identify causes of asthma and COPD which are amenable to intervention, in order to devise strategies for primary and secondary prevention.
Publications:
2010
Prenatal and infant acetaminophen exposure, antioxidant gene polymorphisms and childhood asthma
Shaheen SO, Newson RB, Rose-Zerilli M, Ring SM, Holloway JW, Henderson AJ. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2010 (in press).
Respiratory outcomes in early childhood following antenatal vitamin C and E supplementation
Greenough A, Shaheen S, Shennan A, Seed P, Poston L. Thorax 2010; 65: 998-1003.
Interactive effects of antioxidant genes and air pollution on respiratory function and airway disease: a HuGE systematic review
Minelli C, Wei I, Sagoo G, Jarvis D, Shaheen S, Burney P. Am J Epidemiol 2010 (in press).
Maternal gluthathione-S-transferase polymorphisms do not modify associations of prenatal tobacco smoke exposure with asthma and lung function in children
Henderson AJ, Newson RB, Rose-Zerilli M, Ring SM, Holloway JW, Shaheen SO. Thorax 2010; 65:897-902.
Prenatal paracetamol exposure and asthma: further evidence against confounding
Shaheen SO, Newson RB, Davey Smith G, Henderson AJ. Int J Epidemiol. 2010; 39:790-794.
Genome-wide association study identifies five new loci associated with lung function
Repapi E, Sayers I, Wain LV, Burton PR, Johnson T, Obeidat M, Zhao JH, Ramasamy A, Zhai G, Vitart V, Huffman JE, Igl W, Albrecht E, Deloukas P, Henderson J, Granell R, McArdle WL, Rudnicka AR, Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, Barroso I, Loos RJF, Wareham NJ, Mustelin L, Rantanen T, Surakka I, Imboden M, Wichmann HE, Grkovic I, Jankovic S, Zgaga L, Hartikainen A-L, Peltonen L, Gyllensten U, Johansson A, Zaboli G, Campbell H, Wild SH, Wilson JF, Gläser S, Homuth G, Völzke H, Mangino M, Soranzo N, Spector TD, Polašek O, Rudan I, Wright AF, Heliövaara M, Ripatti S, Naluai AT, Olin A-C, Torén K, Cooper MN, James AL, Palmer LJ, Hingorani AD, Wannamethee SG, Whincup PH, Davey Smith G, Ebrahim S, McKeever TM, Pavord ID, MacLeod AK, Morris AD, Porteous DJ, Cooper C, Dennison E, Shaheen S, Karrasch S, Schnabel E, Schulz H, Grallert H, Bouatia-Naji N, Delplanque J, Froguel P, Blakey JD, The NSHD Respiratory Study Team, Britton JR, Morris RW, Holloway JW, Lawlor DA, Hui J, Nyberg F, Jarvelin M-R, Jackson C, Kähönen M, Kaprio J, Probst-Hensch NM, Koch B, Hayward C, Evans DM, Elliott P, Strachan DP, Hall IP, Tobin MD. Nature Genetics 2010; 42: 36-44.
The relationship of dietary patterns to adult lung function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Shaheen SO, Jameson KA, Syddall HE, Aihie Sayer A, Dennison E, Cooper C, Robinson SM. Eur Respir J 2010; 36:277-284.
Glutathione-S-transferase genes and asthma phenotypes: A HuGE systematic review and meta-analysis including unpublished data
Minelli C & Granell R, Newson RB, Rose-Zerilli MJ, Torrent M, Ring SM, Holloway JW, Shaheen SO, Henderson AJ. Human Genome Epidemiology (HuGE) Review Int J Epidemiol 2010; 39: 539-562.
Dietary patterns and adult asthma: population-based case-control study
Bakolis I, Hooper R, Thompson RL, Shaheen SO. Allergy 2010 65: 606–615.
2009
The developmental origins of asthma: does epigenetics hold the key?
Shaheen SO, Adcock IM. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2009; 180: 690-691.
GSTT1 & GSTM1 real-time PCR copy number variation assays for high-throughput genotyping
Rose-Zerilli M, Barton SJ, Henderson AJ, Shaheen SO, Holloway JW. Clinical Chemistry 2009; 55: 1680-1685.
Dietary patterns in pregnancy and respiratory and atopic outcomes in childhood
Shaheen SO, Northstone K, Newson RB, Emmett PM, Sherriff A, Henderson AJ. Thorax 2009; 64: 411-17.
2008
The relation between paracetamol use and asthma: a GA2LEN European case-control study
Shaheen S, et al. Eur Respir J 2008 ; 32: 1231-1236.
Peanuts in pregnancy: what is a mother to do?
Shaheen SO, Cullinan P. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2008; 178: 113-5.
Associations of early wheezing phenotypes with asthma, atopy, and respiratory function in children
Henderson J, Granell R, Heron J, Sherriff A, Simpson A, Woodcock A, Strachan DP,
Shaheen SO, Sterne JAC. Thorax 2008; 63: 974-980.
Prenatal nutrition and asthma: hope or hype?
Shaheen SO. Thorax 2008; 63: 483-5.
A case-control study of the relation between plasma selenium and asthma in European populations: a GA2LEN project
Burney P, Potts J, Makowska J, Kowalski M, Phillips J, Gnatiuc L, Shaheen S, et al. Allergy 2008; 63: 865-71.
2007
Childhood asthma and fruit consumption in South London
Okoko BJ, Burney PGJ, Newson RB, Potts JF, Shaheen SO. Eur Respir J 2007; 29: 1161-68.
Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of selenium supplementation in adult asthma
Shaheen SO, Newson RB, Rayman MP, Wong AP-L, Tumilty MK, Phillips JM, Potts JF, Kelly FJ, White PT, Burney PGJ. Thorax 2007; 62: 483-490.
Maternal testosterone in pregnancy and atopic outcomes in childhood
Shaheen SO, Hines M, Newson RB, Wheeler M, Herrick DRM, Strachan DP, Jones
RW, Burney PGJ, Henderson AJ. Allergy 2007; 62: 25-32.
2006
Nutrition and allergic disease
Tricon S, Willers S, Smit HA, Burney PG, Devereux G, Frew AJ, Halken S, Host A, Nelson M, Shaheen S, Warner JO, Calder PC. Clin Exp Allergy Rev 2006; 6: 117-188.
2005
Prenatal paracetamol exposure and risk of asthma and elevated IgE in childhood
Shaheen SO, Newson RB, Henderson AJ, Headley JE, Stratton FD, Jones RW, Strachan DP, and the ALSPAC Study Team. Clin Exp Allergy 2005; 35:18-25.
Dietary intake of flavonoids and asthma in adults
Garcia V, Arts IC, Sterne JAC, Thompson RL, Shaheen SO.
Eur Respir J 2005; 26: 449-452.