Cambridge Population Health Sciences

Bradford Hill Seminar - Social justice and health equity - Professor Sir Michael Marmot
2023-02-15 13:00 - 14:00 (Europe/London) | MRC Biostatistics Unit, East Forvie Building, Forvie Site Robinson Way, Cambridge, CB2 0SR, United Kingdom
We regret that the Bradford Hill seminar by Professor Sir Michael Marmot has been postponed. In view of UCU strike action, Professor Marmot is no longer able to deliver the lecture on 15 February.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused, and we hope to announce a new date shortly.
The Bradford Hill seminar series organising committee.

All are invited to the hybrid Bradford Hill Seminar:
Social justice and health equity
Professor Sir Michael Marmot
Institute of Health Equity and UCL Department of Epidemiology & Public Health
Register to attend
Please note this will be a hybrid seminar, with the option to attend in-person (East Forvie Building, Forvie Site, Robinson Way, Cambridge CB2 0SR) or virtually (via Zoom). Professor Sir Michael Marmot will present online via Zoom.
When registering, please select the relevant ticket option.

Register on Eventbrite to attend seminar in person
Register on Zoom to attend seminar online

Abstract
Taking action to reduce health inequalities is a matter of social justice. In developing strategies for tackling health inequalities we need to confront the social gradient in health not just the difference between the worst off and everybody else. There is clear evidence when we look across countries that national policies make a difference and that much can be done in cities, towns and local areas. But policies and interventions must not be confined to the health care system; they need to address the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. The evidence shows that economic circumstances are important but are not the only drivers of health inequalities. Tackling the health gap will take action, based on sound evidence, across the whole of society.
About Professor Sir Michael Marmot
Sir Michael Marmot MBBS, MPH, PhD, FRCP, FFPHM, FMedSci, FBA has been Professor of Epidemiology at University College London since 1985. He is the author of The Health Gap: the challenge of an unequal world (Bloomsbury: 2015), and Status Syndrome: how your place on the social gradient directly affects your health (Bloomsbury: 2004). Professor Marmot is the Advisor to the WHO Director-General, on social determinants of health, in the new WHO Division of Healthier Populations; Distinguished Visiting Professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong (2019-), and co-Director of the of the CUHK Institute of Health Equity. He is the recipient of the WHO Global Hero Award; the Harvard Lown Professorship (2014-2017); the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health (2015), and 19 honorary doctorates.
Marmot has led research groups on health inequalities for nearly 50 years. He chaired the Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas, set up in 2015 by the World Health Organization’s Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO/ WHO) and chaired the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), which was set up by the World Health Organization in 2005, and produced the report entitled: ‘Closing the Gap in a Generation’ in August 2008. At the request of the British Government, he conducted the Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England post 2010, which published its report ‘Fair Society, Healthy Lives’ in February 2010. This was followed by the European Review of Social Determinants of Health and the Health Divide, for WHO EURO in 2014; Health Equity in England: Marmot Review 10 Years On, in 2020; Build Back Fairer: the COVID-19 Marmot Review in 2021; and the Report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, for WHO EMRO, also in 2021.
Professor Marmot also chaired the Expert Panel for the WCRF/AICR 2007 Second Expert Report on Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective; the Breast Screening Review for the NHS National Cancer Action Team, and was a member of The Lancet-University of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health. Early in his career, he set up and led a number of longitudinal cohort studies on the social gradient in health in the UCL Department of Epidemiology & Public Health (where he was head of department for 25 years): the Whitehall II Studies of British Civil Servants, investigating explanations for the striking inverse social gradient in morbidity and mortality; the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), and several international research efforts on the social determinants of health. He served as President of the British Medical Association (BMA) in 2010-2011, and as President of the World Medical Association in 2015. He is President of the British Lung Foundation. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology; a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences; an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy, and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for six years and in 2000 he was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen, for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities. Professor Marmot is a Member of the National Academy of Medicine.
About the Bradford Hill seminars
The Bradford Hill seminar series is the principal series of The Cambridge Population Health Sciences Partnership. This comprises the Department of Public Health & Primary Care, MRC Biostatistics Unit and MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, bringing together a multi-disciplinary partnership of academics and public health professionals. The Bradford Hill seminar programme of internationally recognised speakers covers topics of broad interest to our public health research community. It aims to transcend as well as connect the activities of our individual partners.
All are welcome at our Bradford Hill seminars.

Bradford Hill Seminar - Learning About Long COVID from Patients: The Power of Narrative Evidence
2022-12-07 13:00 - 14:00 | Online
All are invited to the online Bradford Hill Seminar:
Learning About Long COVID from Patients: The Power of Narrative Evidence
Dr Rachel Grob
University of Wisconsin
Register to attend
Please note this will be an online seminar
Zoom registration to attend online: https://mrc-epid.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIqdeCtqjMrHdwFytgvbCFhN0PMuxXHct40
Abstract
Patients have been at the forefront of identifying and addressing Long COVID since it was first reported in the spring of 2020. Today, their experiences and expertise remain a crucial resource for clinicians, public health workers, and others mounting a response to this widespread chronic manifestation of the global pandemic for which their remain few effective clinical interventions. In this seminar, we will summarize the global impact of Long COVID; explore themes emerging from qualitative health experiences research in the USA; share a montage of interview clips from similar research in 8 countries around the world; and discuss the promise and pitfalls associated with narrative evidence.
About Dr Grob
Dr Rachel Grob directs the Qualitative and Health Experiences Research Lab at the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and Center for Patient Partnerships. Her work focuses on improving health by listening to people’s experiences with health and health care, synthesizing their narratives, and then using this powerful learning as a source for making concrete changes that benefit consumers, families and communities. She is a public spokesperson for the value of qualitative methods. She is chair of the for the global health experiences organization DIPEx International; chair emeritus and steering committee member for the US-based Health Experiences Research Network; and author of over 40 peer reviewed articles and a book.
About the Bradford Hill seminars
The Bradford Hill seminar series is the principal series of The Cambridge Population Health Sciences Partnership. This comprises the Department of Public Health & Primary Care, MRC Biostatistics Unit and MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, bringing together a multi-disciplinary partnership of academics and public health professionals. The Bradford Hill seminar programme of internationally recognised speakers covers topics of broad interest to our public health research community. It aims to transcend as well as connect the activities of our individual partners.
All are welcome at our Bradford Hill seminars.

Bradford Hill Seminar - Designing efficient clinical trials during a pandemic
2022-11-23 13:00 - 14:00 | MRC Biostatistics Unit, East Forvie Building, Forvie Site Robinson Way, Cambridge, CB2 0SR, United Kingdom
All are invited to the hybrid Bradford Hill Seminar:
Designing efficient clinical trials during a pandemic
Professor Thomas Jaki
MRC Biostatistics Unit and University of Regensburg
Register to attend
Please note this will be a hybrid seminar, with the option to attend in-person (East Forvie Building, Forvie Site, Robinson Way, Cambridge CB2 0SR) or virtually (via Zoom). When registering, please select the relevant ticket option.
Register on Eventbrite to attend seminar in person or online.
Abstract
Clinical trials are the gold standard when evaluating the potential of a novel treatment, a standard that should not be compromised during a pandemic. At the same time, there are unique challenges in conducting studies in a novel disease, such as COVID-19, and developing novel treatments during a major outbreak of the disease. For example the limited understanding of the natural history of the disease makes it difficult to choose the primary endpoint for a study while potentially highly volatile number of infections makes it difficult to determine the rate and ability to recruit. In this talk Professor Jaki will discuss some of the key issues in designing clinical trials during a pandemic and reflect on his experiences with COVID-19 trials.
Following the seminar, Professor Jaki will be available for a Q&A session with audience members, from 2 – 2.30pm.
About Professor Jaki
Thomas is Professor of Computational Statistics at the University of Regensburg and MRC Professor of Statistics and Programme Leader in the DART theme at the MRC Biostatistics Unit. His work focuses on developing and evaluating novel statistical methods for clinical studies. These methods are adapted for specific applications to ensure they can be used in the pharmaceutical industry and also in public sector research institutions. His current research focuses on model-based dose-finding trials as well as Master protocols.
About the Bradford Hill seminars
The Bradford Hill seminar series is the principal series of The Cambridge Population Health Sciences Partnership. This comprises the Department of Public Health & Primary Care, MRC Biostatistics Unit and MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, bringing together a multi-disciplinary partnership of academics and public health professionals. The Bradford Hill seminar programme of internationally recognised speakers covers topics of broad interest to our public health research community. It aims to transcend as well as connect the activities of our individual partners.
All are welcome at our Bradford Hill seminars.

Bradford Hill Seminar – The future of cancer screening: stratified, pan, both or neither?
2022-05-11 13:00 - 14:00 | Online
All are invited to the online Bradford Hill Seminar:
The future of cancer screening: stratified, pan, both or neither?
Professor Peter Sasieni
King’s Clinical Trials Unit, King’s College London
Register to attend
Register in advance for this free online seminar:
https://phgfoundation.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtdOyrqjovEtQkA-Iv94T1fjMaOVTNOsRf
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Abstract
In this seminar Professor Peter Sasieni will briefly review the current landscape regarding cancer screening. He will then consider the potential for stratifying screening using either polygenic risk scores to differentiate between those with a low, average, or high risk of cancer, or the post-test risk of cancer to offer stratified management. Finally, he will review the potential to expand the scope of cancer screening by adding either new single-site screening programmes or a multi-cancer early detection test. The question of whether a pan-cancer screening test would dissipate the benefit of using polygenic risk scores to stratify screening will also be discussed as will the challenges of reducing screening as risk changes.
About Professor Sasieni
Peter Sasieni is Director of King’s Clinical Trials Unit and Professor of Cancer Prevention at King’s College London. He is the lead statistician and one of the co-lead investigators for the NHS-Galleri Trial evaluating GRAIL’s multi-cancer early detection test for population screening within the NHS and Chair of the National Cancer Research Institute’s Screening, Prevention and Early Diagnosis Group. Sasieni has a PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Washington. He did post-doctoral research in Jack Cuzick’s group at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK) and was Professor of Biostatistics and Cancer Epidemiology at Queen Mary University of London before moving to King’s.
His research spans: cervical screening and HPV testing, HPV vaccination, evaluating cancer screening programmes, clinical trials in cancer screening and prevention, and statistical methodology. He has a close collaboration with Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald evaluating her Cytosponge-TFF3 test for targeted screening and reducing mortality from oesophageal adenocarcinoma. He sometimes writes for the KCL Cancer Prevention Group blog.
About the Bradford Hill seminars
The Bradford Hill seminar series is the principal series of The Cambridge Population Health Sciences Partnership. This comprises the Departments of Public Health & Primary Care, MRC Biostatistics Unit and MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, bringing together a multi-disciplinary partnership of academics and public health professionals. The Bradford Hill seminar programme of internationally recognised speakers covers topics of broad interest to our public health research community. It aims to transcend as well as connect the activities of our individual partners.
All are welcome at our Bradford Hill seminars.

Bradford Hill Seminar - Epidemiology and control of COVID-19 in Hong Kong
2022-02-23 13:00 - 14:00 | Online
All are invited to the online Bradford Hill Seminar:
Epidemiology and control of COVID-19 in Hong Kong
Professor Benjamin Cowling
School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong
Register to attend
Register in advance for this free online seminar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAkcOmqrzkpEtWuJN-8FVEKhOSq1s3t0gSw
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Abstract
In early 2020, Hong Kong was one of the first-affected locations outside of mainland China. However, in the first two years of the pandemic timely public health measures as part of a “Dynamic Zero Covid” strategy were able to successfully control a number of surges in daily case numbers, restricting confirmed cases to well below 1% of the population. Epidemiological analyses have improved our understanding of disease dynamics and the impact of control measures. For example, one of the most interesting phenomena in transmission has been “super-spreading”, in which we have determined that a minority of infections are responsible for a majority of transmission events.
In recent work, we have been examining how and why superspreading dynamics might vary over time. While mass vaccination provides a pathway back to a new normal in most parts of the world, the Hong Kong government has followed the strategy in mainland China of continuing “Dynamic Zero Covid” even when vaccine coverage reaches a high level. Our community studies provide evidence on levels of infections and immunity, and allow us to contrast the difference in effectiveness of the inactivated vaccine (Sinovac) and the mRNA vaccine (BioNTech/Fosun Pharma/Pfizer) being used in Hong Kong
About Professor Cowling
Professor Benjamin Cowling has been the Head of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) since 2013, and is a co-director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control at HKU SPH.
Prof Cowling’s primary research focus is in infectious disease epidemiology. In recent years he has designed and implemented large field studies of influenza transmission in the community and the effectiveness and impact of control measures. His latest research has focused on the modes of respiratory virus transmission, influenza vaccination effectiveness, and immunity to infections at the individual and population level. He has strong links with China CDC, and the NIGMS-funded Harvard Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics.
Professor Cowling is a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and a Fellow of the UK Faculty of Public Health. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, and an Associate Editor of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
About the Bradford Hill seminars
The Bradford Hill seminar series is the principal series of The Cambridge Population Health Sciences Partnership. This comprises the Departments of Public Health & Primary Care, MRC Biostatistics Unit and MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, bringing together a multi-disciplinary partnership of academics and public health professionals. The Bradford Hill seminar programme of internationally recognised speakers covers topics of broad interest to our public health research community. It aims to transcend as well as connect the activities of our individual partners.
All are welcome at our Bradford Hill seminars.

Bradford Hill Seminar - Neighbourhood Disadvantage, Everyday Urban Mobility, and Well-Being
2022-02-16 13:00 - 14:00 | Online
All are invited to the online Bradford Hill Seminar:
Neighbourhood Disadvantage, Everyday Urban Mobility, and Well-Being
Professor Robert J Sampson
Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University
Watch a recording of this seminar
Abstract
This presentation will review a series of findings and work in progress stemming from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighbourhoods (PHDCN) and Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighbourhood Effect. I will focus primarily on the idea that a neighbourhood’s well-being depends not only on its own conditions, as typically conceived, but also the conditions of the neighbourhoods to which its residents are connected, through networks of everyday urban mobility. Results and implications of mobility-based “triple disadvantage” for violence, health, and racial inequality will be discussed, including in a comparative urban framework. Time permitting, I will also briefly describe research linking individual, neighbourhood, and macrosocial change based on the multi-cohort longitudinal design of the PHDCN. Research on cohort variations in individual trajectories of exposure to neighbourhood disadvantage and criminalization will be discussed.
About Professor Sampson
Robert J. Sampson is the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University, an Affiliated Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation, and founding director of the Boston Area Research Initiative. He was Scientific Director for the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). His research and teaching cover a variety of topic areas including crime, disorder, the life course, neighbourhood effects, civic engagement, inequalities, “ecometrics,” and the social structure of the city.
Professor Sampson is the author of three award-winning books and numerous articles. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Criminology, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He has also served as President of the American Society of Criminology.
About the Bradford Hill seminars
The Bradford Hill seminar series is the principal series of The Cambridge Population Health Sciences Partnership. This comprises the Departments of Public Health & Primary Care, MRC Biostatistics Unit and MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, bringing together a multi-disciplinary partnership of academics and public health professionals. The Bradford Hill seminar programme of internationally recognised speakers covers topics of broad interest to our public health research community. It aims to transcend as well as connect the activities of our individual partners.
All are welcome at our Bradford Hill seminars.

Seminar – Dr Anthony Laverty – Imperial College London
2021-02-23 11:00 - 12:00
All are invited to the CEDAR/MRC Epidemiology Seminar with:
Dr Anthony Laverty, Imperial College London.
This seminar will be broadcast live online, a registration link will be posted soon.
About Dr Laverty
Anthony Laverty is a Lecturer in the Public Health Policy Evaluation Unit in the Department of Primary Care & Public Health. He joined Imperial in 2009 as a research assistant and completed his PhD here in 2014.
HIs post is funded by the NIHR School of Public Health Research, a collaboration of eight leading academic centres in England with a focus on the generation of useful evidence for local decision makers. His research has a strong focus on the transport systems and health. He leads an assessment of the potential transport, health and inequality impacts of the introduction of road user charging in England. Previous work on transport and health involved an examination of the health benefits of the free bus pass for older people in England (together with Christopher Millett), an Understanding Society Biomarker Data Project Fellowship, and assessment of the health impacts of public transport (with Richard Patterson).
He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and leads the Public Health Improvement module on the Masters in Public Health as well as the fully-online Global Masters of Public Health here at Imperial. Other research interests include the potential impacts of Brexit on nutrition and health in England (with Evi Seferidi), optimal policies to reduce salt intakes, and evaluations of the impacts of tobacco control interventions on exposure to second hand smoke and child health.
Explore past seminars
All MRC Epidemiology Unit seminars and events where slides, audio or video are available can be found at www.mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk/past-seminars/
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Genetic effects on gene expression across tissues, cell types, and biological contexts
2021-01-11 14:00 - 15:00
Please see details below of an upcoming virtual seminar organised by the MRC Biostatistics Unit. If you would like to attend, please email alison.quenualt@mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk
Genetic effects on gene expression across tissues, cell types, and biological contexts
Kaur Alasoo, Wellcome Sanger Institute
Monday 11 January, 2 – 3pm
An increasing number of gene expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) studies have made summary statistics publicly available, which can be used to gain insight into complex human traits by downstream analyses, such as fine mapping and colocalisation. However, differences between these datasets, in their variants tested, allele codings, and in the transcriptional features quantified, are a barrier to their widespread use. Consequently, target genes for most GWAS signals have still not been identified. Here, we present the eQTL Catalogue (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/eqtl/), a resource which contains quality controlled, uniformly re-computed QTLs from 21 eQTL studies. We find that for matching cell types and tissues, the eQTL effect sizes are highly reproducible between studies. Although most cis-eQTLs were shared between most bulk tissues, the analysis of purified cell types identified a greater diversity of cell-type-specific eQTLs, a subset of which also manifested as novel disease colocalisations. Our summary statistics can be downloaded by FTP, accessed via a REST API, and visualised on the Ensembl genome browser. New datasets will continuously be added to the eQTL Catalogue, enabling the systematic interpretation of human GWAS associations across a large number of cell types and tissues.
However, to understand disease biology, we need to go beyond cis-eQTL colocalisations and uncover the cellular processes that contribute to disease development and progression. Although trans-acting expression quantitative trait loci (trans-eQTLs) can directly reveal cellular processes modulated by disease variants, detecting trans-eQTLs remains challenging due to their small effect sizes. Here, we analysed gene expression and genotype data from six blood cell types from 226 to 710 individuals. We used co-expression modules inferred from gene expression data with five methods as traits in trans-eQTL analysis to limit multiple testing and improve interpretability. In addition to replicating three established associations, we discovered a novel trans-eQTL near SLC39A8 regulating a module of metallothionein genes in LPS-stimulated monocytes. Interestingly, this effect was mediated by a transient cis-eQTL present only in early LPS response and lost before the trans effect appeared. Our analyses highlight how co-expression combined with functional enrichment analysis improves the identification and prioritisation of trans-eQTLs when applied to emerging cell-type-specific datasets.
For further information about the BSU seminar series and to watch videos of past seminars, visit www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/news-and-events/bsuseminars/
