Using birth cohorts to find causes of childhood disease from SIDs to childhood cancer

Prof Terry Dwyer, MD, PhD, Executive Director at the George Institute for Global Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Committee on Health Research. Prof. Terry Dwyer is a disease epidemiologist with extensive experience in the conduct of cohort and case control studies. He holds the position of Executive Director at the George Institute for Global Health, UK and was previously Director of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, coordinating research projects on cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, childhood asthma, and diabetes with a special focus on infant and child health. Over his career, Prof. Dwyer has made major contributions to the knowledge on the effects of early life exposures on disease outcomes in infancy and childhood such as SIDS, but also on adult conditions such as cardiovascular disease. His team's research on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and sleeping position was recognised by the NHMRC as one of the most important contributions to medical research by Australia in the 20th Century. His current work focuses on the joint effects of genes and environment in diseases as diverse as cancer, cardiovascular disease and multiple sclerosis. Prof. Dwyer plays a leading role in two large global cohort collaborations aimed to obtain prospective evidence on the causes of childhood cancer (Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium) and to estimate the separate effect of childhood physical and lifestyle characteristics on risk of major adult diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.  
Prof. Dwyer previously held positions as member of the NHMRC, Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council’s Research Committee, Chair of the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific Region Advisory as well as member of the World Health Organization’s Global Advisory Committee on Health Research.