Sir Rory Collins, MBBS, professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford, England, will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture on Thursday, April 4.
His lecture, “Size matters: the need for large-scale population studies,” will begin at 4 p.m. in 208 Light Hall. It is sponsored by the Oates Institute for Experimental Therapeutics.
Collins, the co-director of the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit at Oxford, is known for the establishment of large-scale epidemiological studies of the causes, prevention and treatment of heart attacks, other vascular disease and cancer. He has also developed approaches to combine results from related studies, called “meta-analyses.”
In 2005, Collins became principal investigator and chief executive of the UK Biobank, a prospective study of 500,000 British people, aged 40-69. Enrollment for the UK Biobank took place over four years starting in 2006, and the volunteers will be followed for at least 25 years.
The long-term study is investigating the contributions of genetics and environmental exposures (such as nutrition, lifestyle and medications) to the development of disease.
Collins is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Royal College of Physicians. He was knighted in 2011 for his services to science.
For a complete schedule of the Flexner Discovery Lecture series and archived video of previous lectures, go to http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/discoveryseries.