Dr. Victoria Salem

Biography

Victoria Salem is a senior fellow at Diabetes UK Grand Challenge and an Honorary Consultant in Diabetes, Endocrinology, and General Internal Medicine at Imperial College London. Her research interests focus on islet biology, advanced optical imaging platforms, and the gut-brain axis. She leads a multidisciplinary team including stem cell biologists and material scientists, working on beta cell replacement therapies for type 1 diabetes, and is involved in clinical practice at St Mary's Hospital, treating patients with type 1 diabetes. Victoria graduated from the Royal Free University College London School of Medicine with an intercalated BSc in Medical Physics and Bioengineering. Following her qualification in 2002, she became an Academic Clinical Fellow at Imperial, receiving the MRC clinical research training fellowship in 2008, mentored by Professor Sir Steve Bloom. Her PhD research investigated the physiological effects of gut hormone administration on food reward processing and glucose metabolism using fMRI. As an NIHR Clinical Lecturer, she developed innovative imaging techniques to study brown adipose tissue physiology. In 2016, she was awarded the prestigious Diabetes UK Harry Keen Clinician Scientist Fellowship, which allowed her to work on rodent models and develop cutting-edge imaging platforms for studying pancreatic islets. Since joining the Department of Bioengineering in 2020, her research has expanded to include fundamental islet biology and regenerative medicine approaches for diabetes. In addition, Victoria contributes to various teaching roles, leading modules in several biomedical education programs, and has a keen interest in medical education.

Research Interests