Contact CamRARE

Contact CamRARE

Prof A J Mcknight

Professor, Queen's University Belfast

A J Mcknight

I am a patient and carer living with multiple rare diseases, which helps drive my passion for delivering robust rare disease research.
AJ has a keen interest in improving the lives of those living with rare conditions (RCs), particularly improving diagnosis, communication, and care pathways.  She is Professor of Molecular Epidemiology and Public Health, having published >130 peer-reviewed papers and securing >£15m in funding.  AJ co-leads government advisory groups improving the identification and treatment of RCs, co-leads the All Ireland RC Interdisciplinary Research Network (RAiN), and is a member of the RD-IMAG and RD research landscape groups.  AJ was instrumental in developing the NI implementation (2015-2020) and action plans (2022) and led the evaluation of multiomic analysis to accelerate diagnosis for RCs within NI.

Rare Research Poster & Pitch

Professor AJ McKnight will join a panel of researchers from across the UK helping us better understand and develop treatments for rare diseases. They’ll each share their work in a fast paced poster and pitch session before being joined by research fudners to discuss the challenges and opportunities for rare disease research funding sustainability.

My three wishes for rare diseases are:

  1. It’s difficult to pick just 3!  People living with rare conditions should have equal opportunities to access health and social care, including participating in relevant clinical trials across the UK.
  2. More ring-fenced rare disease research funding with a focus on supporting UK-wide infrastructure, improving diagnosis, evaluating the impact of rare diseases, and developing therapeutics.
  3. All rare disease research should have effective PPIE and EDI embedded from design through to final delivery with persons living with rare conditions as part of core teams.

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