Cristina Legido-Quigley
Neuro & Metabolic Clinical Research
WELCOME
We are a group of scientists working in Systems Medicine. We imagine the body as millions of molecules nicely put together.
Using advanced technology called mass spectrometry, we collect information on 1000s of molecules from the body and use data analytics, like machine learning, to understand how their levels change in health and in disease in the brain & liver.
Once we know the molecules that are changing we think of ways to cure the disease. Our discoveries can also be part of tests to help clinicians tailor the best treatment to each person.
WORK WITH US
We have a number of positions open in the Systems Medicine Lab at King's College London
located in central London (Franklin-Wilkins building, Waterloo)
Contact
cristina.legido_quigley@kcl.ac.uk
follow updates, click below to link inbluesky:
OUR VISION
Molecular Precision Medicine
that maintains neurometabolic health.
STRATEGY
We design mass spectrometry methods and omics data science tools to investigate neurometabolic disease.
We implement new molecular tests in the clinic. Study in-depth biology to discover nutritional & drug targets.
OUR VALUES
- Quality
- Transparent
- Open Science
- Diversity, Equality, Inclusion
- Fair Collaboration
KEY PEOPLE & PROJECTS
(Last updated April 2025 )
RESEARCH IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
I find exploring the complexity of Alzheimer's Disease fascinating and an important step towards understanding brain regeneration"
- Asger Wretlind
Dr Asger Wretlind
Postdoc Neuro Precision Medicine King's College London
Asger did a Masters in biochemistry and a project in industry (Novozymes). After that he joined our team in 2018 and worked in the targeted metabolomics and lipidomics platform. His postdoc looks into individual metabolic response to diabetes and dementia and investigate biomarkers that can be used to direct personalized treatment. His studies are funded by the LundbeckFonden. Publications in ORCID
RESEARCH IN METABOLIC SYNDROME,
DIABETES & PRECISION MEDICINE
Dr Simon Kienle
Postdoc, Steno Diabetes Center
Simon is an expert in mass spectrometry, after his phD and working in industry he moved to Denmark form Germany & is working in a big data multiomics project to solve vascular complications of diabetes within 5000 participants from the SDCC hospital. The project is multiomics lipidomics, metabolomics, proteomics and genomics based and aims to discover new biomarkers and targets. Collaborators are the diabetes complications group in SDCC and scientists in Novo Nordisk.
Dr Jin Xu
Visiting Senior Scientist in Systems Medicine, King's College London
Jin finished her PhD in metabolomics in King's College London in 2019. An expert in experimental omics and data science she started a postdoc working in data analyses in a range of projects in collaboration with Petra Proitsi who is also her mentor. She has been the recipient of many prizes like the Young Lipid Scientist by the Society of Chemical Industry for her work in transplantation. She managed both the Q-TOF in the lab in KCL and the running of the lab in KCL before joining a startup doing omics discovery. Publications in ORCID
Dr Tommi Suvitaival
Reseacher (Assistant Professor Level)
in Systems Medicine, Steno Diabetes Center
Tommi has been working as a researcher in Systems Medicine seen years. Before that he did a PhD in Machine Learning (2015), his expertise in in bioinformatics, biostatistics, information visualization and statistical programming with R. He is a senior data analyst in the team and oversees many projects. He oversees the IT, bioinformatics and data analyses pipelines in the team. His studies are funded by NNF and IMI projects. See Tommi's publications in ORCID and visit his webpage.
Dr Tik Muk (Mudi)
Postdoctoral Researcher , Steno Diabetes Center
Mudi holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Mechanisms of Diseases from the University of Copenhagen. Her previous research expertise lies in utilizing biofluid proteome, metabolome, and transcriptome profiling to investigate organ injuries, elucidate underlying mechanisms, and identify early markers of disease. Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/
Wenjun Hu (Winni)
PhD Candidate in Systems Medicine, King's College London
Wenjun received her master’s degree from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She conducted plant metabolomics research in China. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Systems Medicine, focusing on the molecular liver-gut-brain axis throughout the life course with a particular emphasis on neuro-health. Her project integrates mass spectrometry detection technology and bioinformatics data analysis methods.
Moritz Ziewer
MSc Bioinformatics 2025 King's College London
Moritz is investigating multimodal molecular panels to diagnose Alzheimer's Disease at an early stage before severe symptoms occur. He employs machine learning for big data analyses.
RESEARCH IN CLINICAL NEUROMETABOLISM
Aishawarya Adhikari
MSc PAQC 2025 King's College London
Aisha is investigating hormone concnetrations in blood and CSF in persons with cognitive impairment and dementia.
Ziwen Yu
MSc PAQC 2025 King's College London
Ziwen is investigating endocannabinoid mechanisms as related to dementia
Alumni and past lab members
The first CLQ group was formed in early 2007 thanks to two PhD visitors, Nello Grassano from Italy, Isabel Garcia-Perez from Spain, and Nicola Greenberg a master student from the UK.
Since then, many scientists have contributed to the discoveries in the lab and shared their results in peer-review journals, masters of science and PhD theses."
Postdoctoral Fellows (next company/institution): Dr Gurjeet Kaur Virk (Steno Diabeets Center), Weiqinag Chen (Harvard University), Dr Kristina Pigsbord (Novo Nordisk Fonden), Dr Karolina Sulek (Novo Nordisk), Dr Kourosh Hooshmand (Bavarian Nordic), Andressa Zawadski (Nordic Biosciences, Denmark), Dr Mina Ali (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Dr Peter Heriksen (RegionH, Denmark), Dr Amera Ebshiana (Imperial College London, UK), Dr Nadia Nielsen Aalling (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Dr Min Kim (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Dr Kajetan Trost (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Dr Linda Ahonen (Biosynthia, Denmark), Dr Ashfaq Ali (AstraZeneca, Sweden), Dr Stuart Snowden (Royal Holloway University, UK), Dr Petra Proitsi (King's College London, UK), Dr Arundhuti Sen (Glaxo SmithKline, UK).
PhD Alumni (next company/instituiton): Dr Jodie Lord (NHS, UK), Anchisa Poonprasartporn (Sirindhorn College Public Health, Thailand), Dr Naba Al-Sari (Novo Nordisk, Denmark), Dr Jenn Nguyen (Waters Corp, US), Dr Jin Xu (King's College London, UK), Dr Amera Ebshiana (Imperial College London, UK), Dr Min Kim (Universy of Copenhagen, Denmark), Dr Pei Han (Pekin Union Medical College, China), Dr Anuri Shah (JOVE, India), Dr Wael Aljohani (University of Jeddah, Saudi), Dr Yao Yao Wang (WuXi Biologics, China), Dr Michael Jones (Waters Corp, US), Dr Erin Chambers (Waters Corp, US), MPhil Farnoush Azadi (Mibeg-Instituu Medizin, Germany), Dr Luke Whiley (Murdoch University, Australia), Dr James Heaton (Pfizer, UK), Dr Saowalak (Aor) Whungsinsujarit (TRIA, Thai Goverment, Thailand), Dr Shana Jacob (Sidra Medical and Research Center, Qatar), Dr Kittipong Sitthisinthu (TRIA, Thai Goverment, Thailand ), Dr Hsiao Ching Foo (Singapore Turf Club, Singapore).
Biomedical Staff: Ismo Mattila, Annette Frost Berre, Nina Christiansen, Birgitte Neergards-Robert.
Academic Visitors: Akrem Jbebli (2025 RECETOX), Sonia Melgar-Locatelli (2024 Spain), Alicia Gomez Pascual (2023 Spain), Dr Khalid Al-Qahtani (Saudi), Dr Martina Palomino-Schatzelin (Spain), Dr Lin Zheng (China), Dr Ana Maria Casas (Spain), Dr Diego Garcia Gomez (Spain), Maria Tena (Spain), Prof Wenhui Gao (China), Prof Yong Huang (China), Dr Isabel Garcia-Perez (Spain), Antonio Grassano (Italy), Christina Abundis (USA), Dr Raquel Hernandez (Spain).
Master Programme Research Thesis & Alumni: Lorena Prlog, Sarah Bahtt, Godiva Affainie, Lilian Zhu (2024-2025), Yang Cheng and Ojas Grade (2023-2024), Shria Malik, Sanzida Islam, Rim Ouahbi (2023-2024), Visolakhon Ismoilova (2022-2024), Anisa Rossen (2022-2023), Salaha Ali (2022-2023), Jesse-Marie Havill (2021-2022), Nathalie Gan (2021-2022), Raman Kaila (2020-2021), Faheem Ali (2020-2021), Ling Wang (2020), Chris Tsoi (2019-2020), Gulcan Yasar (2019-2020), Elmi Galado, Sabiha Hussain, Ho Chan, Tahmina Ahmad, Yangfei Cheng, Nan Liu, Koo Wee Hiew, Kam Cheng, Vinesh Solanki, Mohammad Ally Hassan, Esther Santos-Gyasi, Lax Elanganathan, Faiza Sulaiman, Danting Wang, Mariam Mangal, Yaa Martey, Zohal Sakhi, Pelak Patel, Nuria Camina, Ali Ghalib Sheikh, Geetika Shah, Shreeya Patel, Maltina Shkodra, Wang Xiaoyu, Amish Patel, Kebedom Ghebrehiwet, Anna Allam, Dhiren Dayal, Setova Kpedekpo, Vinotha Tharmarajah, Maria del Carmen Velazquez Ortiz, Hajrah Yunus, Cheng Jiang, Nena Mistry, Zuo Chengchun, Archana Gnana Sekharan, Enoch Adjetey, Ting Yu, Oloma Nwodu, Tanika Rhule, Mufadal Jivanjee, Konstantina Papaspyridonos, Xiayan Li, Anna Mazgaj, Yingzi Hong, Echo, Sebastian Chinnu M, Sani Dennis Kerauni, Nicola Greenberg, Mahomed Suleman, Deena Patel, Krupali Joia, Rehan Ahmed, Nadira Mehjabin, Zeena Gosrani.
Dr Karolina Sulek, Former Team leader 2024 (Associate Professor Level) Steno Diabetes Center now in Novo Nordisk
Karolina did her PhD at the Technical University of Denmark and a post-doc at the University of Auckland. Upon return to Denmark she set up a metabolomics facility at the University of Copenhagen, helping researchers at the NNF Center for Basic Metabolic Research to understand T2D and obesity through metabolomics profiling. Her interest of the omics opened the path to proteomics at NNF Center for Protein Research in the group of Clinical Proteomics led by Matthias Mann. She will apply gained knowledge within the MicrobLiver project and ODINE project a NNF Fellowship granted to her looking at multiomics in neuropathy. She is now a Scientific Director in CSO Office in Novo Nordisk. Karolina's publications in Google Scholar.
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Sonia Melgar-Locatelli
PhD candidate at University of Granada & Academic Visitor in Systems Medicine, King's College London 2024
Sonia holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology and a Master's degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Malaga, where she started her research career in neurobiology. She has conducted research
on Alzheimer's disease and addiction. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in Advanced Biotechnology, focusing on the effects of cocoa on cognitive function and neurogenesis. Her project integrates neurocognitive, biological, and biochemical perspectives, including metabolomics approaches.
Annette Frost Bjerre
Senior Biomedical Scientist
in Systems Medicine, Steno Diabetes Center
Annete joined the group in 2019 and she is a biomedical scientist with 30-year experience working in industry (Novo Nordisk). She is an expert in many molecular techniques and is currently developing methods for tissue sample preparation. She is also working in automation of sample preparation flows.
Dr Kristina Pigsborg 2024
Former Postdoc, Steno Diabetes Center now in Novo Nordisk Fonden
Kristina is an expert in metabolomics and nutrition with a PhD from the University of Copenhagen. She is working in biomarker translation in the clinic to prevent cardiovascular disease in individuals with diabetes. She is developing a new test STAR (Steno Test for Atheroesclerosis Risk) that will be implemented and trialed in the T2D clinic and it is based on lipid molecules proxies of CVD arterial inflammation. Her study is funded by philantrophy funds for personalise medicine. Publications https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1987-523X
Yang Cheng
MSc 2024 King's College London
Yang is stratifying persons that produce low amounts of serotonin and measuring precursors in circulation.
Alicia Gomez Pascual
Former PhD Candidate Visiting Systems Medicine 2023, Steno Diabetes Center
Alicia is an expert in computational biology and artificial intelligence, she applies these techniques to understand neurodegenerative disease. Her supervisor is Juan A. Botía informatics Professor at the University Murcia. GitHub
RESEARCH & IMPACT
The CLQ lab's science is at the interface between chemistry and medicine and her lab houses biotechnology and data science to allow the detection of thousands of small molecules / lipids.
These molecules are measured with mass spectrometry instruments and then, data analytics, including machine learning, is performed to both discover biology and predict health & disease outcomes. In order to translate results into the clinic we also work with clinical trials and evidence portfolios.
OUR RESEARCH
IN THE NEWS
Data sharing importance for personalised medicine in EU (Nature Medicine 2025)
Lipids are depleted in Alcoholic related Liver Disease (Gastroenterology 2023)
CLQ was awarded 4.940.250 DKK by The Lundbeck Foundation to investigate lipids and Alzheimer’s & Diabetes (2021-2025)
Lipidomics of human tissue reveals diversity between body areas (PLoS 2020)
Higher brain glucose may mean more severe Alzheimer's (A&D 2017)
CLICK THE GOOGLE SCHOLAR ICON
TO ACCESS
ALL PUBLICATIONS
CLICK the pictures below to access press releases
Blood test early warning for child obesity complications (Nature Medicine 2024)
Big Data discovers potential causal links in early Alzheimer's Disease (A&D 2023)
Could sleep molecules lead to blood test for Alzheimer's Disease? (A&D 2019)
Brain Fatty acids dysregulated in Alzheimer's Disease (PLoS Medicine 2017)
We are very grateful for the samples that volunteers and donors give us and make our research possible.
As well, we thank all our collaborators and the funding bodies and sponsors that fund our research.
CURRENT FUNDERS & SPONSORS:
PREVIOUS FUNDERS:
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Every memory is a delicate
molecular ballet, -
~ Cristina Legido-Quigley ~
Dr Cristina Legido-Quigley is affiliated to King's College London and to Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen. She is also a Lundbeck Foundation Fellow.
Her main area of interest is neurometabolism and how the brain copes with disease, as well as finding clinical tests for healthy aging, Alzheimer's, cognition, diabetes and metabolic diseases. Her discoveries span fatty molecules that are important for cognition, molecules that in liver alert to tissue damage, together with modulating molecular pathways for improving the treatment of diabetes. She is also researching risk scores for better personalised diagnoses in the clinic. She has been a group leader at King's College London since 2006. In 2018 she moved to Steno a hospital and research center in Denmark to be the Head of Systems Medicine. She shares her findings in more than 200 scientific publications in the biotechnology and medical fields. In 2023 she moved back to King's College London and is affiliated to Steno.
Current Appointments
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Associate Professor (Reader in Systems Medicine), Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, Life Science & Medicine - King's College London, UK
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Director and founder of the consultancy company BrainLogia, UK
Boards, Advisory Committees
- Chair of the Board, Clinical Metabolomics Network, Denmark
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International Scientific Advisory Board Member, Alzheimer's Fondation, Paris, France
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Member, Steering Committee Galaxy H2020, EU
- Institute Pharmaceutical Science Strategy committee, KCL, UK
Professional Education
- PhD, DIC, Imperial College London, Chemistry, UK
- MSci, King's College London, Chemistry, UK
- BSc, King's College London, Chemistry, UK
- Professional Certificate in Data Science, EDX (R:, Visualization, Probability, Inference & Machine Learning) HarvardX, US
- Prediction Modelling and Machine Learning Course, King's College London, Biostatistics,
- Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, King's College London, Education, UK
Former Boards, Honors & Awards
- Honorary Professor, Guizhou Medical University, China
- LundbeckFonden Ascending Investigator Award, Denmark
- Gulbenkain Foundation Fellowship, Portugal
- Head of Systems Medicine - Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, Denmark
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Leadership Committee and Clinical Reseach Council, Steno Diabetes Center, Denmark
- International Grant Review Panel, Research Council of Biosciences, Health and the Environment, Helsinki, Finland
- Advisory Board Member, Institute Pasteur, Lille, France
- Managing Board (EFPIA) IMI Consortia, EU
- Reader for L’Oréal-UNESCO UK & Ireland For Women In Science Programme Awards, UK
- Founding Member, London Metabolomics Network, UU
- Member, Steering Committee CBMR Metabolomics Core University of Copenhagen, Denmark
COI (Conflict of Interest information) updated 2025: CLQ has received consultancy fees from Pfizer.
She has received honoraria, travel or speakers’ fees from Biogen and research funds from Pfizer, Novo Nordisk and Waters Corporation. She is the director and founder of the consultancy company BrainLogia.
Early career, she studied Chemistry at the University of Barcelona, and before completing her degree she moved to Iowa City, US to study Philosophy, Anthropology, Art and Creative Writing at Kirkwood Community College. She then moved to the UK and studied for a BSc in Chemistry at King's College London (Tutor: Prof. Mike Robb FRS). She did her BSc project in industry at Smith Kline Beecham investigating turboflow Liquid Chromatrography-Mass Spectroscopy, supervised by Dr. Vern de Biasi. Her degree was upgraded to a MSc finishing with another project on single-crystal X-ray diffraction in Prof. Jonathan Steed's Group. In 2004 she received her PhD with a thesis on nano and micro LC-MS at Imperial College London. Her doctorate was supervised by Dr. Norman William Smith & Prof. Andreas Manz and funded by the BBSRC and Glaxo SmithKline. At the University of Pavia, Italy, she was a postdoc funded by the EU FP5 funding studying molecular interactions in Prof. Ersilia de Lorenzi's Group. After this, she joined as a postdoc at Imperial College in the Department of Medicine (heads of department/school Prof. Elaine Holmes & Prof. Jeremy Nicholson) and started working with liver tissue in LC-MS, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and metabolomics. As an early career researcher she trained in education, obtaining a postgraduate certificate in higher education and in data science.
WOMEN IN STEM
THE OMICS LIST
Interested in a list to do with
Women in Metabolomics,
Lipidomics & related Data Science?
See, join, edit the list by clicking the figure
~ CLQ ~
OPEN SCIENCE
& DISSEMINATION
ACTIVITIES
- Sharing our results and expertise with the public.
- Organise free conferenceS for the scientific community.
- Help journalists with interviews & science dissemination.
~
