Frances runs her own research group studying the genetic epidemiology of common complex traits related to rheumatic diseases. In particular, her research focuses on chronic pain syndromes including low back pain and intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD). This ties in well with her clinical role as Hon Consultant Rheumatologist at Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Frances also runs an NHS clinic for Musicians and Performing Artists, many of whom have chronic pain conditions, which threaten their occupational wellbeing. She has led several of the world’s first GWAS studies as well as the largest to date study of back pain, demonstrating that many of the environmental risk factors (e.g. social class) share a genetic predisposition with back pain.

Fran started working with TwinsUK in 2002. She became a full time TwinsUK researcher as Rheumatology Registrar/Senior Research Fellow in May 2003.

Tim Spector is a Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London and Honorary Consultant Physician at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Tim founded TwinsUK in 1992, which is now one of the richest collections of clinical data in the world. He is also an expert in personalised medicine and the gut microbiome. Tim is the lead researcher behind the world’s biggest citizen science health project – the Covid Symptom Study app, for which he was awarded an OBE.

Through his work he has been given many awards and prizes and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He has published over 900 scientific papers and is ranked by Google as being in the top 100 most cited scientists in the world. He has published four popular books, including the best-selling Diet Myth, Spoon-Fed, and more recently Food for Life – a Sunday Times bestseller. He makes regular appearances in the media.

Jordana Bell leads the epigenomics research group at the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London. Her research explores the (epi)genomic basis of complex diseases in human populations, focusing on intermediate phenotypes including epigenomic and gut microbiome variation. The broad aim is to apply computational approaches to characterise the biological processes underlying human ageing and age-related cardio-metabolic disease risk, onset, and progression.

Jordana completed her doctoral studies on genetic interactions in human complex traits at the University of Oxford. She was subsequently a Wellcome Trust funded fellow at the Universities of Chicago and Oxford, where her work shifted towards human epigenomics.

Since joining King’s in 2012 Jordana has established a research programme in human population epigenomics and is currently leading research efforts across UK and international collaborative projects, including within DIMENSION, ESSN, GoDMC, and CHARGE consortia. Jordana’s primary research focus is to understand the processes shaping epigenetic variation in human populations, and its biomedical significance. Further projects explore computational approaches for integrative analyses of high-dimensional biomedical data (environmental exposures, DNA sequence, DNA methylation, metabolomics, microbiome, and phenotype) – for prediction of future disease, towards implementing stratified medicine.

Jordana is coordinator of the JPI ERA-HDHL funded DIMENSION consortium on dietary impacts on the epigenome and transcriptome in context of metabolic health.

DIMENSION

Lab website

Kerrin is a Professor at King’s College London and Deputy Director (Scientific) of the TwinsUK Resource. Her research investigates the genetic regulation of gene expression across tissues, time and environments. She has explored the relationship between genetic variants, gene expression in fat tissue and obesity-related traits and uncovered links between gene expression and type 2 diabetes.

Kerrin obtained a PhD in Genetics from Stanford University and undertook post-doctoral training in complex trait genetics at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford. She joined the Department of Twin Research in 2009 and directs transcriptomic research within TwinsUK.