Rate My Professor Susan Ozanne

Professor Susan Ozanne is Professor of Developmental Endocrinology in the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science Metabolic Research Laboratories and MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit at the University of Cambridge. She serves as Head of the Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Director of the Institute of Metabolic Science-Metabolic Research Laboratories. A Fellow of Churchill College since 2004, she earned a first-class honours BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 1990 and a PhD from Christ's College, University of Cambridge, in 1994. Earlier in her career, she held a British Heart Foundation Senior Fellowship, Diabetes UK RD Lawrence Fellowship, and Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship. She is also Co-Chair of Cambridge Reproduction and a Teaching Fellow in Biochemistry.

Ozanne's research centres on the developmental programming of metabolic health, elucidating how suboptimal early-life nutrition, particularly during obese or undernourished pregnancies, increases offspring risks for type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and accelerated ageing. Her lab pioneered evidence that prenatal nutrition affects offspring lifespan and showed metformin treatment in gestational diabetes alters neonatal anthropometry independently of maternal glycaemic control, with implications for clinical practice. Current work examines maternal-fetal communication via placental extracellular vesicles, miRNAs as epigenetic mediators, oxidative stress, mitochondrial function, and interventions including exercise, metformin, semaglutide, and co-enzyme Q supplementation. Author of over 250 peer-reviewed papers, notable publications include 'Diet-induced obesity in female mice leads to offspring hyperphagia, adiposity, hypertension, and insulin resistance: a novel murine model of developmental programming' (2008), 'Catch-up growth and obesity in male mice' (2004), 'DNA damage, cellular senescence and organismal ageing: causal or correlative?' (2007), and 'Epigenetics and DOHaD: from basics to birth and beyond' (2017). Recognized with the Nick Hales Award (2013) for contributions to developmental origins of health and disease and elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci, 2022), she has supervised 20 PhDs and leads the Epigenetic Programming of Metabolic Health across the Life Course programme.