Three UCL academics have been elected to US National Academy of Medicine for their work on artificial intelligence in ophthalmology, the epidemiology of tuberculosis, and cancer genomics.
Professors Pearse Keane (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology), Ibrahim Abubakar (UCL Vice-Provost (Health)) and Charles Swanton (UCL Cancer Institute) are three of just 10 new international members elected this year during the academy’s annual meeting, alongside 90 regular members. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honours in the fields of health and medicine.
Professor Pearse Keane (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology), who is also consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, has been recognised for pioneering medical artificial intelligence in ophthalmology, initiating a seminal collaboration with Google DeepMind to build one of the world’s most advanced clinical algorithms for accurate diagnosis of 50 eye conditions. He fostered the first AI foundation model in ophthalmology and has forged the emerging field of oculomics, which uses eye scans to detect diseases elsewhere in the body.
Professor Keane is also the Director of the INSIGHT health data research hub programme at Moorfields, and earlier this year he won the prestigious Gabor Medal from the Royal Society.
Professor Keane said of the achievement, "It is an honour to join the ranks of an institution so committed to ensuring that AI and other emerging technologies are developed and applied responsibly for the well-being of populations globally.
"I would like to thank the members for giving me the chance to play a small part in NAM’s ongoing efforts to address some of the critical issues in health and medicine through interdisciplinary collaboration."
Professor Ibrahim Abubakar is UCL Vice-Provost (Health), Dean of the UCL Faculty of Population Health Sciences and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology. He has been elected for providing novel insights on tuberculosis epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment, contributions to understanding the spread of emerging infections, and research into migration and health systems. Plus, his work on Nigeria’s health system has informed government policy to expand health insurance coverage to the most vulnerable individuals.
He is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and has previously served as chair of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Tuberculosis.
Professor Abubakar said of the news, "I am delighted that my work and efforts of the teams I have worked with to achieve impact has been recognised by peers in the US.
"I look forward to continuing collaboration with partners globally to make a difference especially in places facing the greatest challenges and among those least able to cope with the multiple setbacks we face in global health."
Professor Charles Swanton (UCL Cancer Institute) is also Chief Clinician at Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and Deputy Clinical Director of the Francis Crick Institute. He is being recognised for showing how evolutionary biology can be applied to cancer genomics, demonstrating cancer branched evolution is ubiquitous, and for deciphering how it is shaped by genome instability, therapy, and immunity. Further, his research demonstrates how these insights can be converted into precision therapy, revealing how carcinogens can drive cancer initiation through inflammation, independent of the development of DNA mutations.
Previously, he has been awarded the prestigious Louis-Jeantet Prize 2024 for Translational Medicine and the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center’s 2021 Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research.
Professor Swanton said of being elected, "I’m hugely grateful to my colleagues and collaborators at the Crick, UCL, CRUK and our funders for making this work possible. This recognition really belongs to them. Their creativity and drive to understand how cancers start and evolve make science an extraordinary adventure, and it’s a privilege to share that journey with them."
Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honours in the fields of health and medicine as it recognises individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
New members are elected by current members through a process that recognises those who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, and public health.
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