Wiebke Arlt, the appointed MRC LMS Director will start from the 1 January 2023 

We are excited to introduce Professor Wiebke Arlt as the new Director of the Medical Research Council London Institute of Medical Sciences (MRC LMS). Wiebke is an award-winning clinical endocrinologist and leader of an international multi-disciplinary research team investigating the links between steroids and metabolic diseases. She joins the LMS from the University of Birmingham where she is Director of the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research and holds the William Withering Chair of Medicine. Wiebke will formally take up her new position on the 1 January 2023.   

Wiebke’s arrival marks the start of a new era for the LMS as it moves to its brand-new state-of-the-art research facility in West London and takes on Wiebke’s new challenge-based approach to research. She will be replacing the previous director Professor Dame Amanda Fisher who stepped down in 2021. 

“I am delighted to take on the leadership of the LMS at this exciting point in its development, just when occupying a brand new, purpose-built building. I am very much looking forward to working with the LMS investigators and staff to deliver transdisciplinary team science, in synergistic interaction with Imperial College and the wider national research environment. We will take a novel, challenge-based approach to tackle major questions of relevance to human health and disease – watch this space!”

– Professor Wiebke Arlt, Appointed MRC LMS director

The MRC LMS is a highly collaborative research institute where scientists and clinicians work side-by-side to investigate the biological mechanisms underlying human health and disease. This is done at the interface of genomics, physiology and epigenetics. As the LMS approaches its 30th anniversary, developing and renewing its mission under new leadership to a challenge-based approach will allow it to embrace the global health challenges of the 21st century.   

Wiebke was selected after a competitive international search carried out jointly by the MRC and Imperial College London. To maximize engagement, strategic alignment, and collaboration between the MRC LMS and the wider College, she will hold a joint appointment with both institutions. 

Professor John Iredale, Executive Chair of the MRC said: “I am thrilled that Wiebke will be leading the LMS at such an exciting time, both in terms of its renewed focus on Human biology and pathology but also as it moves into its new state-of-the-art accommodation on the Hammersmith Hospital Campus. Her ambitious and exciting vision for the LMS will further cement the LMS as a world-renowned research institute and a national training hub, particularly for clinical sciences that will drive our understanding of human biology and disease and opportunities for new treatments and diagnostics.”

As Director, Wiebke will also have control of a core budget of £85 million over five years, the direction of around 220 researchers and support staff to lead this new strategy and the LMS’ brand-new state-of-the-art research facility. It is her goal to strengthen LMS clinical science and further leverage its strategic location and partnership with Imperial College London on the Hammersmith Hospital site. 

Professor Jonathan Weber, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London said: “I am delighted to welcome Wiebke into the Imperial Faculty of Medicine, cementing a hugely constructive relationship between the College and the MRC/UKRI. Wiebke brings an outstanding track record as a clinical academic to the LMS and will drive the translational research success our partnership aims to achieve.” 

The new MRC LMS building at the Hammersmith Campus.