UK Biobank Chief Executive Officer appointed

31 March 2003

Dr John Newton has been appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the UK Biobank project. Dr Newton joins UK Biobank from the Unit of Health Care Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Oxford, where he has been Consultant Epidemiologist for 11 years, and the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, where he was Director of Research and Development.

The UK Biobank project, funded by the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health, is a long-term attempt to disentangle the subtle interaction of genes and environment in relation to our health. UK Biobank will be the world's biggest study of the role of nature and nurture in health and disease. Up to half a million participants aged between 45 and 69 years will be asked to contribute a blood sample, lifestyle details and their medical histories to create a national database of unprecedented size.

See also

• UK Biobank Chief Executive Officer appointed (Press release: 31 March 2003)

External links

• UK Biobank: Further project details