John Hines Memorial Lecture
Tim Spector is a Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Director of the TwinsUK Registry at Kings College University of London. He is a specialist in twin studies, genetics, epigenetics, and microbiome and diet.
He trained originally in rheumatology and epidemiology. In 1992 he moved into genetic epidemiology and founded the UK Twins Registry of 13,000 twins, which is the richest collection of genotypic and phenotypic information worldwide.
His current work focuses on omics and the microbiome and directs the crowdfunded British Gut microbiome project. Together with an international team of leading scientists, he is conducting the largest scientific nutrition research project, showing that individual responses to the same foods are unique, even between identical twins.
He is a prolific writer with several popular science books, including The Diet Myth (2015) and Spoon-Fed (2020), and a regular blog focusing on genetics, epigenetics and, most recently, microbiome and diet.
In March 2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, he made use of twins already taking part in a genetic study to begin an investigation of COVID-19 symptoms. Working with researchers at King’s College, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, an app used by twins to record nutrition was quickly repurposed into the COVID Symptom Study app to allow members of the public to make a daily record of their symptoms and state of health. By July 2020 the app had more than 4 million users.
Please book by 1pm on the day of the lecture.
Members: Free
Guests: £5