In conversation with Professor S Faisal Ahmed, incoming Editor-in-Chief of Endocrine Connections

We are delighted that Professor S Faisal Ahmed will join the Editorial Board of Endocrine Connections as Editor-in-Chief from 1 January 2024, taking over from Professor Adrian Clark. Professor Ahmed is a consultant at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill, Glasgow and holds the Samson Gemmell Chair of Child Health at the University of Glasgow. In 2021, he won the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) Research Award, which recognises research achievements of outstanding quality in the fields of basic endocrine science or of clinical paediatric endocrinology.
We caught up with Professor Ahmed to find out more about his career in endocrinology, and what this new role means to him.
What inspired you to choose a career in endocrinology?
I was always interested in paediatrics as a career even when I was a medical student. As far as endocrinology goes, I was inspired purely by chance, being in the right place at the right time. I had energy, enthusiasm and an appetite for inquiry, so I pursued a wide range of research, supported by some leading figures in endocrinology, including Chris Kelnar, Raj Thakker and Ieuan Hughes. I was convinced that paediatric endocrinology was the right choice when another leading light in endocrinology, Stephen Shalet, (the external examiner for my MD), later explained that paediatricians were nice people and so were endocrinologists, so paediatric endocrinologists had to be the nicest!
Tell us about your career highlights to date
My work in skeletal development with biologists, imaging experts and clinicians provided me with a deeper insight into the GH/IGF-1 system and the effects of chronic disease, and led to innovative methods of assessing bone quality. I am particularly proud of the work we undertook using MRI to perform a virtual bone biopsy, which integrated an assessment of bone microarchitecture, bone adiposity and muscle parameters.
My research in sex development has had impact in several areas but, most importantly, I have developed and continue to lead a highly successful international consortium, I-DSD, that, over time, has included a wider group of conditions affecting sex development and maturation. This research active consortium has over 150 participating centres from over 50 countries in all six continents. I’ve applied these skills to other projects such as EuRRECa, EuRR-Bone and GloBE-Reg, leading to my adjunct appointment as a Professor of Endocrine Registries at the University of Leiden in 2019.
My involvement in the field of rare conditions was the driver for the development of the Glasgow Office for Rare Conditions in 2016, the only one of its kind in Scotland. Every country has national plans for improving the care of people with rare conditions. However, implementing these national plans at a local or regional level is much more challenging. Opened in 2017, the Glasgow project is a partnership between the University of Glasgow, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board and the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, and seeks to improve the local care pathways for patients and families with rare conditions.
I’ve supervised the successful completion of a postgraduate research degree of over two dozen young scientists and have also helped several other visiting fellows to undertake research and write papers. Academic supervision is a great responsibility as you are looking after someone who is relying on you to develop their future career. The best present a supervisee can give to their supervisor is a bound copy of a thesis! Supervision enhances a supervisor’s leadership, management, teaching and communication skills. However, the satisfaction you get from mentoring a person through to a successful career has to take the biscuit!
What advice or words of wisdom would you give to someone starting out in endocrine research?
Most clinicians don’t enter research thinking that one day they will be a professor or an Editor-in-Chief or receive a research award. They enter research because they feel it is a stepping stone in their career and they have an inquisitive mind. I believe that, deep down, they also appreciate that an improvement in patient and public health outcomes is closely linked to advancing medical and scientific knowledge. Becoming immersed in research can provide intellectual stimulation, personal fulfilment, global opportunities and a huge range of problem-solving skills. However, it is not for everybody and especially not for those who can’t take a rejection!
What motivated you to join the Editorial Board of Endocrine Connections?
I have served on the Editorial Board of other journals and have followed the progress of Endocrine Connections for a few years. I have worked with Bioscientifica, the publisher, in other areas and have a great deal of respect for Adrian Clark, the outgoing Editor-in-Chief. So, when the opportunity arose, I didn’t have to think twice before throwing my hat in the ring.
What are you looking forward to most in your incoming role as Editor-in-Chief? And what are you looking for in submissions to Endocrine Connections?
As the incoming Editor-in-Chief, I believe we need to build on the word ‘connections’, whether that be connections with other sciences, connections between the different clinical professions within endocrinology, connections between the bench and the lab, connections between centres, or connections between data sets. These are the qualities I hope to see in future submissions to the journal. I am often asked what is the best paper I have ever published and my usual answer is my first one, which was a methodology paper in the journal Annals of Human Biology. I would also like future endocrinologists to remember Endocrine Connections as the journal where they published their first paper, and which connected them to endocrinology.
What are you most looking forward to at this year’s SfE BES?
As I step into the shoes of Editor-in-Chief, I look forward to welcoming people to SfE BES Conference on 13–15 November in my hometown of Glasgow, the city where history meets innovation!
Professors Ahmed and Clark will be on hand to answer questions in our ‘Meet the Editor-in-Chief’ session, taking place on Tuesday 14th November, at 16:30–17:00 on stands 3 and 4 at SfE BES.