Andrew Prentice leads the Nutrition Theme at MRC Unit The Gambia and the MRC International Nutrition Group at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine where he is Professor of International Nutrition. He received his PhD in biological sciences (nutrition) from Darwin College, University of Cambridge, UK following undergraduate studies in biochemistry at the University of Leeds, UK.
Andrew was born and schooled in East Africa prior to his university studies in the UK. He has worked for almost 40 years at MRC Keneba, a remote field station in rural Gambia where he has focused on many aspects of maternal and child nutrition (see www.ing.mrc.ac.uk). He now leads a large team focusing on four topics: Early Growth & Development; Iron, Infection & Anemia; Calcium, Vitamin D and Bone Health; and Nutritional Genetics & Epigenetics.
His team conducts fundamental research aimed at gaining novel insights into the basic mechanisms linking diet and disease. Their central objective is to provide a stronger theoretical basis for community and clinical interventions. Within this broad portfolio Prentice’s personal research focuses on two topics: the effect of a mother’s peri-conceptional nutritional status on their infant’s epigenome; and the host-pathogen battle for iron with implications for the design of safer next-generation interventions.
His group’s work has been recognised by a number of international awards and by continuous core funding from the UK Medical Research Council and the UK Department for International Development (DfID) for 40 years. He has been a member of expert panels for numerous national and international organisations. Professor Prentice has published over 300 peerreviewed articles and he lectures both locally and internationally. In the past 5 years his publications have focused on epigenetics, as well as the iron-hepcidin axis, infections and anaemia.