Naomi Allen (scientist)

Last updated
Naomi Allen
Alma mater University of Oxford
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
University of Southampton
Scientific career
Institutions University of Oxford
UK Biobank
Thesis Nutritional and genetic determinants of hormone levels in relation to prostate cancer risk  (2000)

Naomi Allen is a British epidemiologist and professor at the Nuffield Department of Population Health University of Oxford. She is based in the Clinical Trial Service Unit, and Chief Scientist for UK Biobank. She is interested in the role of diet and obesity in cancer development.

Contents

Early life and education

Allen was an environmentalist, and campaigned for Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth as a young person. She decided to study environmental science at the University of Southampton, where she became interested in public health and epidemiology through optional modules. [1] She graduated into a recession, and says that she "drifted from one awful job to another,". [1] Embracing her enthusiasm for epidemiology, Allen applied for an MSc in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. [1] She eventually earned her doctoral degree at the University of Oxford, where she studied the nutritional and genetic determinants of hormone levels and how this impacted prostate cancer risk. [2]

Research and career

Allen studies the role of diet and obesity in cancer diagnoses. She leads a research group studying the relationship between endogenous hormones and nutritional biomarkers in prostate cancer risk.

She joined UK Biobank as an epidemiologist in 2011. [3] She was made Chief Scientist in 2019, and led new initiatives including improving follow-up with participants. Genome sequencing enables researchers to investigate genetic variation across the whole genome, which helps researchers understand how variation influences health and disease risk. [4] [5] Allen hopes that the UK Biobank helps researchers do better risk prediction, improving ability to characterise risk of developing conditions such as breast cancer. [4] For examples,BioBank has identified a polygenic risk score for coronary heart disease, [6] revealing that 8% of the UK population have triple a normal heart disease risk. [4] She has trialled wearable technology with BioBank participants, providing 100,000 with smart watches in 2014. This study showed it was possible to identify Parkinson's disease seven years before a typical diagnosis. [4]

Allen also believes it will help identify genetic variants that are associated with a particular health outcome, and provide insight into potential drug candidates. [4] [7] The Broad Institute study that revealed 8% of the UK population had three times the heart disease risk proposed that prevention strategies (e.g. statins or other cardiovascular treatments) could be used from an early age. [6] The BioBank data is "de-identified,", which means that it does not contain participant names, dates of birth, addresses, and NHS numbers. Analysis is performed on a secure cloud-based research platform, and data cannot be downloaded.

Personal life

Allen goes swimming every morning. [1]

Select publications

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Naomi Allen, Professor of Epidemiology". www.ndph.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
  2. ↑ "Nutritional and genetic determinants of hormone levels in relation to prostate cancer risk | WorldCat.org". search.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
  3. ↑ "Naomi Allen". www.ndph.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-07-15.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Naomi Allen: What can 500,000 genomes tell us about human health?". Genetics Unzipped. 2023-12-14. Retrieved 2025-07-15.
  5. ↑ "#349: Prof. Naomi Allen – How the UK Biobank is Powering Chronic Disease Research | Sigma Nutrition". sigmanutrition.com. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
  6. 1 2 Khera, Amit V.; Chaffin, Mark; Aragam, Krishna G.; Haas, Mary E.; Roselli, Carolina; Choi, Seung Hoan; Natarajan, Pradeep; Lander, Eric S.; Lubitz, Steven A.; Ellinor, Patrick T.; Kathiresan, Sekar (September 2018). "Genome-wide polygenic scores for common diseases identify individuals with risk equivalent to monogenic mutations". Nature Genetics. 50 (9): 1219–1224. doi:10.1038/s41588-018-0183-z. ISSN   1546-1718. PMC   6128408 . PMID   30104762.
  7. ↑ "Podcast: How a groundbreaking biomedical data project could transform medicine". www.gponline.com. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.