The Interconnection between the environment and human health

Professor Lora Fleming is Director of the European Centre for Environment and Human Health, which is part of the University of Exeter Medical School.

Based at the University of Exeter’s Truro campus in Cornwall, Professor Fleming and her team are conducting clinical trials which explore whether interventions can be made to help people live healthier and stay healthier.

Some of the team’s current research uses genomic information from DNA to consider whether the right medications are being used and to help prevent issues such as heart disease.

The centre’s research also looks at whether we can use information about weather and climate to protect people from climate change. It investigates the complex links between climate and a range of illnesses, and assesses how climate change might affect disease risk factors. Multi-institutional and international collaboration are at the heart of this work, which is also exploring pioneering big data techniques.