Dr Richard Allen

I did a Mathematics and Statistics BSc at the University of York. While there I became interested in medical research during an internship reviewing the quality of wound trials and decided to do a masters in Medical Statistics at the University of Leicester. I undertook my PhD in genetic epidemiology also at Leicester where I studied the genetics of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and have continued my research into the genetics of IPF after my PhD. Following my PHD, my research was funded as part of a personal fellowship awarded by the patient led charity Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis to investigate the role of genetics in progressive pulmonary fibrosis. Currently my research is investigating the role of genetics in progressive pulmonary fibrosis and fibrosis across multiple organs. I am actively involved in public engagement and raising awareness of pulmonary fibrosis.

My research focusses on understanding the genetics of a devastating lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). IPF occurs when there is scarring to the air sacs in the lung due to an unknown cause. This scarring builds up over time restricting the lungs ability to expand and impairing gas transfer. There is no cure and half of individuals die within 3-5 years of diagnosis.

I am performing large-scale genetic analyses to identify changes in DNA that can either increase risk of developing IPF or affect how quickly the disease progresses. I am also investigating the genetic overlap between fibrotic disease in different organs. These analyses include performing genome-wide association studies applying machine learning and joint modelling to build prediction models and recruiting individuals to studies of pulmonary fibrosis.

Understanding the underlying biological mechanisms driving pulmonary fibrosis aids drug development and will help us target treatments to individuals where they are more likely to be effective.

For a full list of publications see https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=azeTVe0AAAAJ&hl=en

Chin D, Hernandez-Beeftink TH, Donoghue L, …, Allen RJ, Wain LV. Genome-wide association study of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis susceptibility using clinically-curated European-ancestry datasets. medRxiv (2025) 2025.01.30.25321017

Allen RJ, Correa Delgado J, Frayling T, …. Challenges and considerations for analysing multiple long-term conditions: First report of the MLTC Research Statistical Methods and Clinical Communities of Practice. Zenodo preprint (2025) 10.5281/zenodo.15375014

Allen RJ, Wellens-Mensah J, Leavy OC, …. BPF-GILD study: an observational cohort study of UK pigeon fanciers. medRxiv (2024) 2024.07.27.24311102

Allen RJ^†, Oldham JM^†, Jenkins DA, …. Longitudinal lung function and gas transfer in individuals with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a genome-wide association study. Lancet Respir Med (2023) 11(1):65-73 ^†Joint first authors

Oldham JM^†, Allen RJ^†, Lorenzo-Salazar JM^†, Molyneaux P^†, …. PCSK6 and Survival in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med (2023) 207(11):1515-1524 ^†Joint first authors

Allen RJ^†, Guillen-Guio B^†, Croot E, ….  Genetic overlap between idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and COVID-19. Eur Respir J (2022) 60(6):2103132 ^†Joint first authors

Allen RJ, Stockwell A, Oldham JM, …. Genome-wide association study across five cohorts identifies five novel loci associated with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Thorax (2022) 77:829-833

Allen RJ, Guillen-Guio B, Oldham JM, .... Genome-wide association study of susceptibility to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med (2020) 201(5):564-574

Allen RJ, Porte J, Braybrooke R, .... Genetic variants associated with susceptibility to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in people of European ancestry: A genome-wide association study. Lancet Respir Med (2017) 5(11):869-880

Leavy OC, Ma SF, Molyneaux PL, ..., Allen RJ. Proportion of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis risk explained by known genetic loci in European populations. Am J Respir Crit Care Med (2021) 203(6):775-778

Dudbridge F, Allen RJ, Sheehan NA, .... Adjustment for index event bias in genome-wide association studies of subsequent events. Nat Commun (2019) 10:1591

 

Current PhD students

First supervisor

• Ritah Nabunje - Investigating the genetics of progressive pulmonary fibrosis in multi-ancestry populations (2022 - present)
• Dom Sayers - The role of rare genetic variants in progressive pulmonary fibrosis (2023 - present)
• Samantha Anns - Genetics of idiopathic pulomonary fibrosis subtypes (2026 - present)

Co-supervisor

• Catherine McMullan - Functional investigation of a potential novel drug target for progressive lung fibrosis (2022 - present)
• Holly Hagger - Why are men and women so different? - Investigating sex-specific genomic-risk and telomere length (2023 - present)
• Hayley Power - Exploring the contribution of complex genomic variation to fibrosis risk (2024 - present)
• Nickson Murunga - Providing up-to-date risk estimates from prognostic models: further development and application of temporal recalibration (2024 - present)

Completed PhD students

Co-supervisor

• Gina Parcesepe - Correlated traits analyses to enhance drug target discovery (2021 - 2025)
• Daniel Chin - The genetic epidemiology of lung scarring (2020 - 2025)

Module lead:

• Health Data Research | Computational Health Data Science MSc | 2025 - present
• Quantitative Methods | Core module for 3 MRes and 1 iMSc course | 2024 - present
• Machine Learning | Medical Statistics MSc | 2024 - present
• Quantitative Methods | Quality and Safety in Healthcare MSc | 2023 (as co-lead)

Project supervision:

• Medical Statistics MSc
• Bioinformatics MSc
• Biological Sciences BSc

I am always happy to talk about pulmonary fibrosis (particularly around the genetic research) or statistical genetic research (such as genome-wide association studies).

British Lung Foundation Early Career Investigator Award (2019)

College of Life Sciences Prize for Excellent PhD Performance (2018)

 York Award (2013) 

FHEA (2025)

PhD in Genetic Epidemiology (University of Leicester | 2014 - 2018)

Medical Statistics MSc (University of Leicester | 2013 - 2014)

Mathematics and Statistics BSc (University of York | 2010 - 2013)