Edward Johnstone

Edward Johnstone is an Honorary Professor at the University of Manchester's Division of Developmental Biology & Medicine (L5), serving as Head of the Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre and Head of his division. He also holds roles as Senior Clinical Lecturer in Obstetrics and Fetal Medicine and Honorary Consultant at St. Mary's Hospital. His research focuses on fetal growth restriction, placental biology, and environmental impacts on pregnancy outcomes, with contributions to clinical translation and public health policy.

Johnstone graduated from Leeds University Medical School in 1994 and completed a PhD in trophoblast cell biology at the University of Manchester in 2005, following a Tommy's Clinical Research Fellowship that included study at the University of Alberta. He returned to Leeds for sub-specialist training in Fetal Medicine before rejoining Manchester in 2009 as Senior Clinical Lecturer and was later promoted to Chair in 2019.

His research interests span fetal/placental imaging, trophoblast biology, air pollution's effects on pregnancy, and postnatal growth. He leads the Manchester Placenta Clinic, the first Tommy's translational research clinic, which integrates clinical care with cohort studies for fundamental science. His work addresses pre-eclampsia, stillbirth prevention, and environmental health through multi-modal studies and large-scale datasets, including the Tommy’s National Biobank.

Johnstone oversees projects like the RESPIRE initiative (2021–2025), exploring environmental exposures' impact on child health, and the Tommy's 2024–2025 Annual Budget project, advancing maternal and fetal health research. He is a principal investigator for NIHR studies and available for commercial research collaborations in maternal/fetal health.

Key contributions include developing biomarkers for pre-eclampsia and advocating for evidence-based healthcare practices, such as the NICE-recommended PlGF blood test to identify high-risk pregnancies. His datasets include the FEMINA2 study and placental MRI comparisons, sharing data via platforms like Mendeley and Figshare.