Cambridge Centre for Professor John Whittaker
Director, MRC Biostatistics Unit
Contact information
07919298000
MRC Biostatistics Unit
East Forvie Building
Robinson Way
Cambridge
CB2 0SR
United Kingdom
https://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/people/in-alphabetical-order/t-to-z/john-whittaker/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-whittaker-b44ab321/
Biography
Since January 2022, I have been Director of the BSU and Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Cambridge. Prior to this I have held academic posts at several UK Universities, most recently as Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. I moved to GlaxoSmithKline in 2009, initially as head of statistical genetics, and then led groups and projects in both genetics and non-clinical statistics. Key activities included the initiation of Open Targets, the whole genome sequencing of UK Biobank by a public-private consortium and most latterly the development of an integrated wet-dry lab approach to understanding the functional consequences of genetic variation.
Research interests
My research interests are in the use of statistical modelling, mainly in the Bayesian framework, to solve applied biomedical problems. My current work is centered on the design and analysis of genetic/genomic studies at both population and lab scale, and in particular on the integration of multiple genetic, genomic and epidemiological data resources to generate mechanistic and causal understanding of disease aetiology. I particularly enjoy working collaboratively with scientists from other disciplines.
Additional key words: statistical genetics, epidemiology, bioinformatics, causal understanding, data integration
Keywords
Bayesian statistics, Biostatistics, Genomics