Celia Gregson is a Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and a NIHR Global Health Research Professor of Healthy Ageing in sub-Saharan Africa, leading the Global Health and Ageing Research Unit at the University of Bristol and the Health Research Unit of Zimbabwe within the Biomedical Research and Training Institute in Harare. She is an Honorary Consultant Orthogeriatrician at the Royal United Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Bath, UK.

Celia qualified in Medicine from the University of Nottingham. Following physician training she was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Training Fellowship. She completed a one-year MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and then a PhD at the University of Bristol, during which she set up the UK DINAG consortium (DXA-databases to Identify Novel Anabolic Genes). She then worked as a Senior Scientist at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton, before completing an Arthritis Research UK Clinician Scientist Fellowship at the University of Bristol studying the molecular genetics of High Bone Mass.

In 2018, Celia and colleagues founded the ‘Sub-Saharan African MuSculOskeletal Network’ (SAMSON), which she co-directs. This network aims to build musculoskeletal research capacity across the region. Her research embedded within this network includes: (i) the IMVASK cohort study (The IMpact of Vertical HIV infection on child and Adolescent Skeletal development in Zimbabwe), a Wellcome Funded collaboration with the LSHTM and Biomedical and Research Training Institute (BRTI) in Harare; (ii) ‘VITamin D for AdoLescents with HIV to reduce musculoskeletal morbidity and ImmunopaThologY (VITALITY): an individually randomised, double-blinded placebo-controlled trial’ in Zimbabwe and Zambia which is EDCTP funded; (iii) Celia leads a Wellcome Trust Collaborator Award addressing ‘Fractures in sub-Saharan Africa: Epidemiology, Economic impact and Ethnography’ (Fractures-E3), working with colleagues in The Gambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa; (iv) embedded within Fractures-E3 is the MUFASSA study, studying muscle and sarcopenia in older adults; (v) Celia is PI of the menopause study, focusing on musculoskeletal disease during menopausal transition in the context of HIV infection in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and on co-developing health information and training resources to improve care access; (vi) in 2022 Celia was awarded a NIHR Global Health Professorship in Healthy Ageing in sub-Saharan Africa. As such she leads the ‘Keeping Older people healthy: deSigning and evaluating effective HEalth Services to maintain functional AbIlity’ (KOSHESAI study) in Zimbabwe, which aims to develop and implement an evidence-based clinical framework for non-specialist assessment and management of chronic disorders of ageing which impact functional ability, to improve health and wellbeing of older people. The program spans mobility, nutrition, cognition, depression, vision, hearing, and continence in older people.

In the UK, Celia’s research, funded by the Royal Osteoporosis Society (2015-2018), identified persistent (and growing) health inequalities in hip fracture incidence and outcomes. Celia then secured funding from Versus Arthritis for the REDUCE Study, which addresses unwarranted variation in the delivery of hip fracture services in England and Wales (2019-2023), launching the REDUCE Study Hip Fracture Implementation Toolkit in 2023, in collaboration with the Royal Osteoporosis Society (https://theros.org.uk/healthcare-professionals/clinical-quality-hub/clinical-quality-toolkits/hip-fractures/).

Celia chairs the National Osteoporosis Guideline Group in the UK and sits on the Royal College of Physicians Falls and Fragility Fracture Audit Programme Scientific and Publications Committee, she is a clinical advisor to the Royal Osteoporosis Society, a member of the UK Bone Research Society Scientific committee, and of the WHO Clinical Consortium on Healthy Ageing. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London.