The LMS is an interdisciplinary research environment in which scientists and clinicians collaborate to advance the understanding of biology and its application to medicine.

The Institute was founded by the Medical Research Council over 20 years ago and now attracts the very highest calibre of scientists, postdoctoral fellows and students from around the world. Our collective challenge is to remain at the forefront of innovation so that advances made at the bench can be progressed for maximum benefit.

Close ties with colleagues at our sister institute the LMB in Cambridge, as well as Imperial College London, the Francis Crick Institute and universities across London, allow our scientists a unique opportunity to explore the genetic, epigenetic and physiological bases of health and disease and its visualisation through cutting-edge imaging.

New director Wiebke Arlt joined the LMS on 1st January 2023 and will lead the LMS as it develops a new challenge-based approach to research.

Wiebke says, “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!”

At the Hammersmith Hospital Campus, the LMS is ideally placed to facilitate the translational development of its work. LMS scientists also exploit multidisciplinary opportunities with colleagues from Imperial College London combining biological sciences with other disciplines, in particular engineering, physics, mathematics, chemistry and computer science.

At full strength, the LMS comprises over 30 research groups organised into the two research sections Epigenetics and Genes and Metabolism. The research groups are also part of the Institute of Clinical Sciences (ICS), which is a Department in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London. The ICS has three divisions Imaging Sciences, Clinical Research and Molecular Sciences.