Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Lecture Series

Professor Sir Gordon Duff

‘Medicine in the Digital Age’

Gordon Duff trained in Medicine at the Universities of Oxford and London, where he also gained a PhD in Neuropharmacology. Following postgraduate medical posts in London, and junior faculty posts at Yale University, he joined the Edinburgh Medical School in 1984, and was Director of the Molecular Immunology Group where cytokines were identified as therapeutic targets in inflammatory joint diseases. In 1990 he moved to Sheffield University as Florey Professor of Molecular Medicine, where he was also a member of University Council, Faculty Research Dean and Director of the Division of Genomic Medicine. In January 2013 he was appointed Chairman of the expanded Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the UK national regulator (MHRA). He also currently chairs the Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) of Imperial College, London, the MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre at Imperial College, and the AHSC of Trinity College Dublin. Previously Chairman of the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM), he was inaugural Chairman of the Commission on Human Medicines (2003 to 2013). In 2006 he chaired the Secretary-of-State’s Expert Scientific Group on Phase One Clinical Trials. From 2002 to 2009 he was Chairman of the UK’s National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, including the National Stem Cell Bank. He is an advisor on Biological Medicines to the EU, and Chairman of the UK’s Scientific Pandemic Influenza Advisory Committee. In 2009-10, he co-chaired, with the Govt Chief Scientist, the Cabinet Office’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). In 2010, at the request of Secretary-of-State, He reviewed and made recommendations on the UK’s Organ Donor Register. His research interest is in common inflammatory diseases (HI=71) and he has given many international named lectures, receiving several research awards and medals. He is past-President of the International Cytokine Society and founding editor of the research journal CYTOKINE (Elsevier) and an editorial advisor for the Journal of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO Journal). He has participated in the launch of several companies in the UK and USA, taking roles as Board Chairman, Director, and Chair of Scientific Advisory Boards. He is an Honorary Fellow of St Peter’s College, Oxford, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Edinburgh and London (Croonian Lecturer), and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He received a Knighthood in the Queen’s 2007 New Year’s List for services to Public Health.

Professor John Hardy

'Genetic analysis of neurodegeneration'

Professor John Hardy received his degree in Biochemistry from Leeds in 1976 and his PhD from Imperial College in Neuropharmacology in 1979. He did postdocs at the MRC Neuropathogenesis Unit and the Swedish Brain Bank, in Umea, where he started to work on Alzheimer’s disease. In 1985 he took the job of Lecturer in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College, where he began working on the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease. In 1991 he led the group which found the first mutation in the amyloid gene which caused Alzheimer’s disease. This finding led him and others to formulate the amyloid hypothesis for the disease. In 1992 he moved to the United States, to the University of South Florida. In 1996 he moved to the Mayo Clinic where he became Chair of the Department of Neuroscience in 2000. In 1998 he was part of the consortium which identified mutations in the tau gene in Pick’s disease. In 2001 he moved to the NIH to become the Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics, where he was part of the group which found triplications in the synuclein gene caused Parkinson’s disease. He returned to the Department of Molecular Neuroscience at the Institute of Neurology in 2007. He has won the Allied Signal, Potamkin, MetLife and Kaul Prizes, for his work on Alzheimer’s disease and the Anna Marie Opprecht Prize for his work on Parkinson’s disease. Just recently he was awarded the 2011 Khalid Iqbal Lifetime Achievement Award in Alzheimer’s Disease Research and the IFRAD 2011 European Grand Prize for Alzheimer's Research. He has been elected a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences and has been awarded an honorary MD by the University of Umea, Sweden. He was made an FRS by the Royal Society in 2009 and in 2010 was awarded a honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Newcastle. He has three adult children and two grandchildren who live in the US.

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Professor David Cameron

'Screen for Breast Cancer: the good, the bad and the....'

Professor Cameron received his medical degree in 1986 from St. George's Hospital Medical School, London. After completing a fellowship and MSc in Clinical Oncology at the University of Edinburgh, he received a M.D. with distinction in 1997. Professor Cameron is a member of several professional societies including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the European Society for Medical Oncology and is Secretary of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Breast Cancer Group. He has also been a member of the EORTC task force on the use of growth factors in chemotherapy for solid tumours and lymphoma and Chairman of the EORTC New Agent Committee. He is active in a number of clinical trials in breast cancer. He is a member of the executive committee of the HERA adjuvant herceptin trial, and is a member of the steering group for several UK adjuvant breast cancer trials (AZURE, OPTION, TACT, TANGO and TEAM). He is chief investigator on the recent UK trial adjuvant breast cancer trial, TACT2, exploring the benefit of accelerated Epirubicin chemotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer, and chief investigator of BEATRICE, a global trial testing the possible benefit of adjuvant bevacizumab in triple negative breast cancer. Between November 2006 & June 2010 he was Director of the NIHR-funded National Cancer Research Networks, and continues as an Associate Director. He recently took up a new post as Professor of Oncology at Edinburgh University and Director of Cancer Services in NHS Lothian. He continues his major clinical interest in breast cancer with an on-going clinical and translational research programme.

Professor Sadaf Farooqi

‘Mechanisms involved in human obesity: lessons from genetics’

Sadaf Farooqi qualified with Honours in Medicine from the University of Birmingham, being awarded the gold medal. After hospital posts in Birmingham and Oxford she moved to Cambridge to undertake a PhD. She identified the first single gene defect to cause human obesity in patients with a mutation in the leptin gene, published in Nature in 1997 and described their dramatic response to leptin therapy (NEJM 1999; SCIENCE 2007). As a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow at the Institute of Metabolic Science in Cambridge, Professor Farooqi co-ordinates a programme of research into the genetic, molecular and physiological basis of human obesity. She has been invited to speak at numerous international meetings and has been the recipient of a number of awards in recognition of her contribution to Endocrinology including the Andre Mayer Award 2006 (International Association for the Study of Obesity), the RD Lawrence Award 2007 (Diabetes UK), the Society for Endocrinology Medal 2012 and the European Society for Endocrinology Prize 2012.