- Dr Ron Zimmern, Chair, PHG Foundation
Ron has a distinguished career
in medicine and public health and is the pioneer of public health genomics in the UK. He’s especially interested in the relationship
between clinical services and teaching and research, priority setting in the NHS, and the law and ethics of medicine. He concentrates
on strategic development of the Foundation and on international leadership in public health genomics, and leads the Foundation’s
work on the evaluation and regulation of genetic tests and molecular biomarkers.
- Prof Mohamed Karmali, Executive Director GRaPH-Int,
Public Health Agency of Canada
Mohamed A. Karmali is a professor
in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McMaster University and Director-General of two programmes in the Public
Health Agency of Canada (PHAC): Biotechnology, Genomics, and Population Health, and the Laboratory for Food borne Zoonoses. He is also
the Executive Director of the Genome-based Research and Population Health International Network. He is the former Head of Microbiology
at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. Dr. Karmali is recognised internationally for his research on Escherichia coli O157:H7 and
other Verotoxin (VT)-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC). In the early 1980s his group established the causal link between VTEC and
the hemolytic uremic syndrome, a disease, of hitherto unknown cause, that is the commonest cause of acute renal failure in children.
He continues to be active in research on the pathogenesis and comparative genomics of this group of organisms with an emphasis on
public health applications.
- Dr Wylie Burke, University of Washington
Professor Wylie Burke is Professor
and Chair of the Department of Medical History and Ethics, University of Washington, Seattle, USA Dr Wylie Burke is Professor and
Chair of the Department of Medical History and Ethics. She has adjunct appointments in the departments of medicine and epidemiology.
Dr Burke is a faculty member in the Public Health Genetics Program and in the Medical Genetics Training Program. In 1994 she became
the founding director of Women’s Health Care Center at UW Medical Center- Roosevelt and served in that role until 1999. She has also
previously served as associate director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. Dr. Burke’s research is focused on clinical and
public health application of genetic information. Her work addresses the social, ethical and policy implications of genetic information,
including the development of practice standards, public and professional education, genetic screening, and the impact of genetic
counselling on risk perception.
- Dr Christine Harrison, Newcastle University
Christine Harrison is currently
Professor of Childhood Cancer Cytogenetics and Director, Leukaemia Research Cytogenetics Group, Northern Institute for Cancer Research,
Newcastle University, UK. She was awarded her Ph.D. in Cell Biology at the University of Manchester, UK. She started her cytogenetics
career in the early 1980's when she established a Regional Oncology Cytogenetics Service within the Paterson Institute for Cancer
Research, Manchester, UK, specialising in leukaemia cytogenetics. In 1997 she moved to the Department of Haematology, Royal Free and
University College Medical School, London ,as Head of the Cytogenetics Group. In this position she replaced Professor Lorna Secker-Walker
as Director of the Leukaemia Research Cytogenetics Group and Chair of the UK Cancer Cytogenetics Group. Three years later she re-established
her group within the University of Southampton, UK. Christine is an Examiner in Clinical Cytogenetics and Fellow of the Royal College of
Pathologists. She is a member of the Standing Committee for the International System for Human Cytogenetic Nomenclature and her research
and academic achievements include over 140 publications.
- Dr Muin Khoury, U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention
Muin J. Khoury is director of
the Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Office was formed in 1997
to assess the impact of advances in human genetics and the Human Genome Project on public health and disease prevention. CDC's
Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention serves as the national focus for integrating genomics into public health research and
programs for disease prevention and health promotion. He serves on several scientific, public health, and health policy national
and international committees. He is an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Emory's School of Public Health and an Associate in
the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
- Prof Julian Little, University of Ottawa
Julian Little, PhD,
moved to Canada in August 2004 to take up a position as Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine,
University of Ottawa. His PhD, from Aberdeen University, was on problems of ascertainment of congenital anomalies. Subsequently,
he worked for the EUROCAT Central Registry in Brussels (Belgium), as a lecturer in epidemiology in Nottingham University, as an
epidemiologist in the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, and as Professor of Epidemiology at Aberdeen University,
during which he spent a sabbatical year at the Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention, CDC, Atlanta. His research interests lie
in human genome epidemiology, particularly in relation to birth defects and cancer.
- Prof Theresa Marteau, King's College London
Theresa Marteau is Professor
of Health Psychology and Director of the Psychology and Genetics Research Group at King's College, London. She has been conducting
research on psychological aspects of health risk assessment with a particular focus on genetic risks for 20 years. The work has covered
genetic testing in pregnancy, adulthood and childhood, and population-based screening programmes. She has studied heart disease, cervical,
breast and bowel cancers, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease and thalassaemia. The aim of her research is to understand responses as a
first step towards evaluating different methods of communicating information to promote understanding, informed choices, reduce emotional
distress and facilitate the adoption of health promoting behaviours. She is also President of the recently formed UK Society of
Behavioural Medicine.