Debbie Thompson - MBBS (UWI), Diploma Dermatology (University of London)

Dr. Debbie Thompson is a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Tropical Metabolism Research Unit of CAIHR which she joined in 2009.

Debbie received her MBBS degree from the University of the West Indies followed by a Postgraduate Diploma in Dermatology from the University of London. She later completed her PhD in Nutrition at the University of the West Indies. In 2017, she was awarded a 2-year Academic Fellowship in Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. While there, she was awarded a Restracomp Fellowship by the Hospital for Sick Children’s Research Institute. Subsequently, she was awarded the Canada CARICOM Faculty Leadership Scholarship during which time she worked as a Visiting Scientist at the University Toronto, Canada.

Debbie has participated in and led a range of research projects investigating the effects of early life factors such as birth weight and intermediary metabolites (cortisol, adiponectin and myostatin) on adult body composition and glucose metabolism. Her doctoral thesis focused on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in adult survivors of severe acute malnutrition. She has also studied the associations between early childhood exposure to severe acute malnutrition and adult body composition, glucose metabolism, cardiovascular structure and function and metabolism. In addition to the long-term cardio-metabolic effects of exposure to severe malnutrition in early childhood, her current research focus includes the pathogenesis of skin changes of SAM and its two main phenotypes (severe wasting and oedematous malnutrition).