International Coordinating Centre (Oxford)
Research Staff
Derrick Bennett, Senior Statistician
Derrick
Bennett joined the Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) and Epidemiological
Studies Unit at the University of Oxford in 2004. He is currently a Senior
Statistician within the Heart Studies Group at CTSU. His work has concentrated
on the generation of reliable evidence from large-scale observational
epidemiology and randomized trials. His main research interest is the assessment
of classical and genetic risk factors for risk of cardiovascular disease and
stroke. Specifically his work includes collaborative analyses of individual
participant data from genetic studies of homocysteine and CHD (MTHFR
Studies Collaboration), C-Reactive Protein (CRP CHD Studies Collaboration);
meta-analyses of randomized trials of the effects B-vitamins for lowering
homocysteine on vascular disease, cancer and cognitive function (B-vitamins
Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration); large-scale epidemiology such as the
assessment of the association of physical activity with prevalent disease in the
China Kadoorie Biobank study; genetic analyses in the China Kadoorie Biobank;
and large-scale clinical trials including a trial that aims to assess the role
of aspirin and omega-3 in 15,000 patients with diabetes but no prior history of
vascular disease. He has also contributed to the estimation of mortality,
morbidity, and years of life lost due to stroke as part of the Global Burden of
Diseases and Injuries 2010 study, a large-scale international collaborative
project.
Ruth Boxhall, Medical Statistician
Ruth
Boxall is a Medical Statistician working on the China Kadoorie Biobank Study at
the Clinical Trial Service Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health,
Oxford. After completing a BSc in Biological Sciences with Genetics in 2009 at
the University of Edinburgh, she did an MSc by Research in 2010, rotating
through the three centres at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine in
Edinburgh: MRC Human Genetics Unit, Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre and the
Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine. Ruth remained at the IGMM for a
further four years conducting bioinformatics based research into genetic
networks and pathways in cognition and neuropsychiatric disorders. As part of
the statistical team at the CKB she will be investigating genetic variants as
possible causal risk factors in a number of diseases.
Yiping Chen, Senior Research Fellow
Yiping
Chen is a senior research fellow at the CTSU, University of Oxford. She
qualified in clinical medicine in 1985 at Shanghai Medical University (now Fudan
University) and then worked as junior neurologist in University affiliated
teaching hospital, Hua-shan hospital in Shanghai. In 1988 she was awarded
Sino-British Friendship Scholarship to study in the UK and gained her PhD at
University of Oxford in 1993. She joined CTSU in 1998 and has worked as study
coordinator and senior research fellow in several CTSU-led large clinical trials
such as COMMIT/CCS2, SHARP, HPS2-THRIVE, REVEAL. During 2006-2016 she also plays
a leading role in running Oxford-China Fellowship programmes which provides
residence training in epidemiology, medical statistics and clinical trials
methodology for the clinical doctors, public health workers from China. She is
currently leading a multi-disciplinary team in the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB)
of 0.5 million people, responsible for developing strategies and procedures
related to validation of electronically reported clinical events and for
conducting disease validation and adjudication in collaboration with clinical
specialists in China for CKB. Her main research interests are in the fields of
clinical epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases, major depression, and sleeping
disorders.
Robert Clarke, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine
Dr
Robert Clarke is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine at CTSU,
University of Oxford, and Honorary Consultant in Public Health Medicine at
Oxford University Hospitals Trust. He is Scientific Director of the MSc course
in Global Health Science. He is an External Examiner in Epidemiology at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Cambridge and
University College Dublin and Royal College of Physicians in Ireland. He
qualified in clinical medicine at the National University of Ireland in 1979 and
then worked for 5 years in internal medicine and 5 years in Cardiology. He was a
Research Fellow in Clinical Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University, Nashville,
Tennessee, USA, for 2 years, working on the pharmacology of aspirin and direct
thrombin inhibitors. He joined CTSU in 1991 and coordinated several large
observational studies and meta-analyses of observational studies and randomized
trials. Some of the projects that he coordinated included the Whitehall study,
Prospective Studies Collaboration, PROCARDIS, Homocysteine Studies
Collaboration, B-Vitamin Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration and BEST-D trial.
His work has focussed on the generation of reliable evidence for avoidance of
death and disability from cardiovascular diseases using large-scale
observational studies and randomised trials. His specific research interests
include assessment of the importance of genetic variants and plasma biomarkers
for coronary heart disease, stroke and aortic stenosis. His expertise includes
use of genetic epidemiology of cardiovascular disease to understand disease
mechanisms and define therapeutic targets. He joined the CKB study team to focus
on study of the genetic and other blood-based risk factors for stroke, coronary
heart disease and other major causes of premature death. In addition, his work
on clinical trials of vitamins and fatty acids has helped to define public
health policy on nutrition for disease prevention.
Huaidong Du, Senior Research Fellow
Huaidong
Du obtained her MD degree in 1994 and worked as an ophthalmologist for 8 years
in the People’s Hospital of Liaoning Province. In 2009, she finished her MSc and
PhD training in Nutritional Epidemiology at Wageningen University, Maastricht
University and the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment
(RIVM), the Netherlands. She joined the Clinical Trial Service Unit and
Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU), University of Oxford, in January 2010 and
has been working on the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) study since then. Her main
research focuses on diet, physical activity, adiposity and diabetes. Since 2013,
she has been involved in coordinating the currently on-going second resurvey of
the CKB, which includes 25,000 participants from 10 study areas in China.
Christiana Kartsonaki, Senior Statistician
Christiana
Kartsonaki is a senior statistician at the Clinical Trial Service and
Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU) in the Nuffield Department of Population
Health, University of Oxford. She has a degree in Mathematics, an MSc in Applied
Statistics and a DPhil in Statistics. She has previously worked in the
Department of Oncology of the University of Oxford and at the Centre for Cancer
Genetic Epidemiology in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care,
University of Cambridge.
Michael V Holmes, Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine
Dr
Michael Holmes is a Clinical Research Fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine at CTSU,
University of Oxford. He graduated BSc pre-clinical medicine (with 1st class
Hons) at University of St. Andrews where his thesis involved running a
randomized clinical trial at Ninewells hospital in Dundee. Michael qualified
from clinical medicine at University College London in 2005, graduating with
distinction, and subsequently worked for 4 years in internal medicine in the UK
National Health Service. During this time he held NIHR clinical academic posts
including academic foundation year and academic clinical fellowships, which
enabled him to strengthen his grounding in clinical research. Michael was
awarded an MRC population health scientist fellowship during which he undertook
a Masters in Epidemiology at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
(graduating with Distinction and class prize for thesis) and completed a PhD in
Genetic Epidemiology at University College London. Following his PhD, he was
Assistant Professor at University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA, working on
the genetic determinants of clinical outcomes following organ transplantation.
Michael joined CTSU in November 2014 as a senior researcher where he is working with the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) to investigate causal risk factors underlying cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Michael's expertise lies in using genetic variants to disentangle causality from confounding with the aim of improving understanding of disease aetiology and identifying novel therapeutic targets for disease prevention.
Iona Millwood, Research Fellow
Iona
Millwood completed an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences and a DPhil in
Molecular Genetics. She undertook postdoctoral research at Imperial College on
large-scale genetic epidemiological projects including the Northern Finland
Birth Cohorts, and spent several years at the University of New South Wales
developing clinical trials for biomedical methods of HIV prevention in Australia
and South-East Asia. She joined CTSU in 2009, and current research interests
focus on the genetic and molecular epidemiology of cardiometabolic diseases, and
the health effects of alcohol consumption.
Iain Turnbull, Clinical Research Fellow
Dr
Iain Turnbull is a Clinical Research Fellow at the Clinical Trial Service Unit
and Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU), University of Oxford. He qualified in
clinical medicine at University of Cambridge in 2003 and went on to train in
General Medicine in the South West of England and New Zealand until 2007,
becoming a Member of the Royal College of Physicians.
Iain completed his training in General Practice in 2009 and worked in a busy surgery in Swindon for 6 years. He joined CTSU in June 2015 and is working with the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB). Since his arrival, he has been engaged in developing a standardisation tool for Chinese health insurance data and procedures for disease classification and adjudication. He continues to work part-time in General Practice.
Robin Walters, Senior Statistical Geneticist
Dr
Robin Walters completed degrees in Natural Sciences (Cambridge) and in Genetics
(Liverpool) before working for 17 years on the biophysics, biochemistry and
genetics of plant photosynthesis, first in Sheffield and then in Oxford. He then
held a post as a Research Fellow at Imperial College London, before moving to
CTSU in June 2012. Dr Walters’s recent research has focussed on investigating
the contribution of structural variation in the human genome to disease risk and
phenotypic variation, with a particular focus on diabetes and obesity. He played
a leading role in work identifying the highly penetrant obesity phenotype
associated with a deletion on chromsome 16p, and the reciprocal effects of a
duplication at the same locus. He continues to have an interest in the
development of novel methodologies for the identification and analysis of
genomic structural variants. His current role is to plan and lead the genetic
analysis of stroke risk in the China Kadoorie Biobank.
Ling Yang, Senior Epidemiologist
Ling
Yang qualified in Medicine at South-Eastern University, China, in 1995, then
gained her MSc in Bio-statistics in 1998 at the same university, and her PhD in
Epidemiology at the University of Tampere in Finland in 2005. Before moving to
the University of Oxford in 2007, she worked at the Chinese Academy of Medical
Science and Ministry of Health in Beijing (China), WHO International Agency for
Research on Cancer in Lyon (France) and Karolinska Institute in Stockholm
(Sweden). She is a Senior Epidemiologist at CTSU,University of Oxford, and also
leads the Long-term Follow-up Working Group for the CKB. Her main research
focuses on women’s reproductive health, environmental causes of chronic
diseases, especially cancer, based on big cohort studies, and evidence-based
medicine using national survey data to provide strategies for chronic disease
prevention and control in developing countries.
Project Staff
Daniel Avery, Data Analyst
Daniel
Avery is a Data Analyst with the China Kadoorie Biobank at the Clinical Trial
Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU), University of Oxford. He
graduated with an MSc in Research Methods from the University of Bristol before
working for a number of companies in the retail sector performing data
management roles. He is responsible for helping develop and manage the CKB
database, ensuring the research team and collaborators have access to reliable
and high quality data. This includes importing, cleaning and standardising
information from sources as diverse as Health Insurance agencies, meteorological
stations, urinalysis devices and genetic assays; then integrating it all into an
analysis database.
Yu-mei Chang, Project Administrative Coordinator
After completing her training in medical technology at the National Taiwan University Medical College, Yu-mei participated in the coordination of several regional-wide and international research projects while she worked as a licensed MT in Taipei. She was awarded a PhD in Environmental Epidemiology at the University of Cincinnati Medical Centre in US in 2004. During her graduate study, Yu-mei gained experience in handling/analyzing large datasets; conducting supervised health service research; and applying geospatial tools and analyses on the impact of environmental factors to health. Yu-mei came to the UK to undertake research in respiratory health at the University of London. She subsequently joined the China Kadoorie Biobank at the University of Oxford in 2009 as the Research Project Administrative Coordinator. She is involved in the planning and development of different sub-projects, including DNA and genetic research; she also has a responsibility to support and coordinate miscellaneous tasks, such as assessment of certain measurements and procurement of devices.
Simon Gilbert, Senior IT Developer
Simon
Gilbert is a Senior IT Developer at CTSU. He completed a BSc in Mathematics at
London University in 1984 and an MSc in Information Technology at the University
of Strathclyde in 1986. More recently he spent a year studying Chinese at
Beijing Foreign Language University in 2002 and received an MA in Chinese
Studies from Leeds University in 2004. Prior to joining CTSU in 2006, Simon
worked for a number of software companies, including eight years with Siemens
developing internet security software. After joining CTSU in 2006 he played a
major role in developing the IT systems for two large randomised trials, HPS-2
and HPS-3. Simon is currently working on the China Kadoorie Biobank study on a
number of bespoke systems related to the resurvey and outcome validation for use
on a hand-held portal device.
Alex Hacker, Data Scientist
Alex
Hacker is a Data Scientist at the Clinical Trial Service Unit and
Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU), University of Oxford. He graduated from the
University of Oxford with a degree in Mathematical Sciences, and worked in
technical support, training and data reporting before joining the China Kadoorie
Biobank in 2008. He is responsible for developing and managing the CKB database,
ensuring the research team and collaborators have access to reliable and high
quality data. This includes importing, cleaning and standardising information
from sources as diverse as Health Insurance agencies, meteorological stations,
urinalysis devices and genetic assays; then integrating it all into an analysis
database. From this he creates and presents preliminary data analyses for
colleagues and collaborators. His current focus is on developing and sharing
best practice for data management with Data Scientists working on other
prospective studies, with an emphasis on preparing and providing data for
research.
Michael Hill, Laboratory Scientific Director
Mike
Hill is the Laboratory Scientific Director of the CTSU Wolfson Laboratories. He
joined the Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) in 2009 from a background in
laboratory based research, with particular experience in population-based
studies. He manages a team of 30 research and technical staff who provide
central laboratory support for clinical trials and observational studies led by
CTSU and collaborating groups. He is responsible for senior strategic oversight
of the laboratories and ensuring the scientific integrity of the laboratory
work. Current research interests and collaborative projects include;
establishing an NMR metabolomics facility within CTSU; supporting UK Biobank and
China Kadoorie Biobank to undertake biomarker measurements; supporting the
University of Oxford and UK Biocentre to establish a new biorepository in the
South of England; and supporting the Fuwai Hospital, Beijing to establish a
national biocentre in Beijing that stores biological samples collected in the
China Kadoorie Biobank.
Becky Stevens, Data Analyst
Becky Stevens is a Data Analyst for the China Kadoorie Biobank at the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU). She graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a BSc (Hons) in Applied Statistics and Environmental Biology before completing a MSc at the University of Southampton in Statistics with Applications in Medicine. Becky began her career working for a contract research organisation and subsequently went on to analyse customer data for a range of industries including the finance and telecommunications sectors. Becky joined China Kadoorie Biobank in June 2016 and is focussed on helping develop and manage the CKB database, ensuring the research team and collaborators have access to reliable and high quality data.
Paul Ryder, Senior Research Facilitator
Paul
joined CTSU in May 2014 to work as a research facilitator on the CKB. His main
responsibilities are to help manage the planned expansion of the group’s
research programme and to promote international collaboration and engagement
with the resource. He graduated with a BA (Hons) in Human Sciences from the
University of Oxford in 1994 and has 20 years' of project management
experience. He worked with a number of International NGOs on social development
and environmental conservation issues before returning to the University of
Oxford in 2001. At the Refugee Studies Centre, he managed a large programme
grant from the Department for International Development which supported outreach
and training initiatives aimed at delivering research-based improvements to
humanitarian policy making and practice. Most recently Paul led the
administrative establishment and assisted the strategic development of the
George Institute for Global Heath’s UK operations which also form part of the
Nuffield Department of Population Health.
Sam Sansome, Senior Data Group Manager
Sam
Sansome is the Senior Data Group Manager for the China Kadoorie Biobank at the
Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU), University
of Oxford where he is responsible for a team consisting of a Senior Data
Scientist and Data Analysts. He graduated from the Open University with a BSc
(Hons) in Computing and Statistics. Sam has spent the majority of his career
gaining experiencing across all aspects of database management within the
financial services sector before joining the China Kadoorie Biobank in early
2013. Sam was the Mainframe Database Manager during one of the largest and most
complex Banking IT integrations ever undertaken with a specific focus on
delivering an integrated online customer information service and internet
banking platform for over 30 million customers. Sam has taken the opportunity
to develop his career within a research environment and to pursue his interest
in data from new and heterogeneous sources. Sam is particularly looking forward
to the opportunities and challenges that ‘Big Data’ offers to the CKB.
Xiaoming Yang, Senior IT Coordinator
Dr
Xiaoming Yang is the Senior IT Coordinator of the CKB group. He completed his
B.Eng and M.Eng in Engineering at Tsinghua University (China) in 1983 and 1986
respectively, and his Ph.D in Computer-aided Engineering at Leeds University
(UK) in 1998. Before he joined CTSU in 2008, he worked as an IT consultant (on
behalf of IBM) for Airbus (UK, Germany) specializing in PDM domains. His
interests focus on the application of IT technologies in practice and IT
teamwork. In the CKB group, he is responsible for IT coordinating/planning,
major IT decisions, daily operational management, critical infrastructure and
server security, and mentoring junior members. He is also involved in web
application design and development including the CKB website.
Other ICC Project Staff:
Statisticians/Analysts: Peter Ka Hung Chan Jonathan Clarke, Zammy Fairhirst-Hunter, Andri Iona, Pei Kei / Becky Im, Maria Kakkoura, Kuang Lin, Alfred Pozarickij, Saredo Said, Paul Sherliker, Neil Wright, Pang Yao
IT/Data Group: Sushila Burgess. Rene Kerosi, Dan Schmidt, Rajani Sohoni,
Administration/Support: Hannah Fry, Qunhua Nie, Lin Wang,
DPhil Students