John Marioni elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences

Dr John Marioni is one of 60 outstanding biomedical and health scientists elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences‘ influential Fellowship, it has been announced today .

The new Fellows have been recognised for their remarkable contributions to biomedical and health science and their ability to generate new knowledge and improve the health of people everywhere.

Dr John Marioni’s research group has been a driver of the single cell genomics revolution. They have pioneered the development of robust and widely-used statistical approaches for data analysis, from normalisation through to data integration and interpretation. His work has demonstrated how single cell genomics can be used to create molecular atlases and, critically, how these can facilitate novel and unexpected discoveries about how cells function in early development, ageing, immunology and cancer.

Professor Dame Anne Johnson PMedSci, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences said “It gives me great pleasure to welcome these 60 experts to the Fellowship to help to address the major health challenges facing society.

“Each of the new Fellows has made important contributions to the health of our society, with a breadth of expertise ranging from the physical and mental health of young people to parasitic diseases and computational biology.

“The diversity of biomedical and health expertise within our Fellowship is a formidable asset that in the past year has informed our work on critical issues such as tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the health impacts of climate change, addressing health inequalities, and making the case for funding science. The new Fellows of 2022 will be critical to helping us deliver our ambitious 10-year strategy that we will launch later this year.”

Professor Dame Jessica Corner FMedSci, Registrar of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said “I warmly welcome the new cohort of Fellows and am grateful to those who have worked hard to nominate and select such excellent people from an outstanding group of candidates. Increasing the diversity of our Fellowship and the researchers we support is a major priority for the Academy. The highest quality biomedical science relies upon the brightest minds coming together from across a wide range of backgrounds. It is notable that this year’s new Fellows hail from every region of the UK, with the proportion being elected from outside London, Oxford and Cambridge increasing to 45%, up from 32% last year.

“This year we welcome the highest proportion of experts from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds ever elected to the Academy, at 17%. I look forward to the launch of our upcoming Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy which will contribute to the evolution of the Academy as a diverse, relevant and energetic organisation.

“It is of concern that we continue to receive significantly fewer nominations for women experts than men with the proportion of women elected to the Fellowship at 30%. There is a long way to go until the Fellowship reflects the diversity of our society and this year we will be doing more work to encourage nominations for women researchers and those who are racially diverse, as well as improving our data collection around disability and sexual orientation.”

The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy on Monday 27 June 2022.