London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
(University of London)
Department of Public Health & Policy
Public & Environmental Health Research Unit
Lecturer in Biostatistics
Background
The study “The C8 Science Panel Community Health study” is a study of a
contaminated community in the USA. DuPont's West Virginia Washington Works
Plant on the Ohio River near Parkersburg, WV released a chemical called C8 into
the air and Ohio River from the 1950s until recently. C8 (or PFOA perfluoro-octanoic
acid) is a man-made chemical used in manufacturing many products, including nonstick cookware, protective finishes on carpets, water-resistant clothing, and weatherbarrier wrap for houses. The C8 reached drinking water supplies by entering the
groundwater and was detected in six water districts near the DuPont plant in 2002.
Some blood measurements indicate C8 levels in local residents much higher than
national average concentrations. It is estimated that up to 80,000 people were
exposed to C8 via these water supplies.
In July of 2005, a class action lawsuit brought by the communities against DuPont
resulted in a settlement agreement. As part of that settlement, a group of 3
epidemiologists was set up, termed the “C8 Science Panel”, including Dr. Tony
Fletcher at the LSHTM. The Panel has been charged to carry out a research
programme, funded out of the legal settlement. The research programme comprises
a number of coordinated studies, and promises to be the most comprehensive work
to date on C8 and human health effects. Further details are available on the
programme at the website: http://www.c8sciencepanel.org.
The two studies led by Dr Fletcher, to which the post holder would principally
contribute are:
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The Cross Sectional Study of C8 and Immune Function, Hematopoietic
Function, Liver, Kidney, and Endocrine Disorders and Cancer Prevalence - A
Prevalence Study among Participants in the C8 Health Project
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Short Term Follow-up Study of C8 and Immune, Liver, Kidney and Endocrine
Function
Cross Sectional Study of C8 and Immune Function, Hematopoietic Function,
Liver, Kidney, and Endocrine Disorders and Cancer Prevalence - A Prevalence
Study among Participants in the C8 Health Project.
Outline of study
This study addresses the cross sectional relationship of C8 and a number of disease
and clinical disease markers in a population of 69,030 participants in the C8 Health
Project. They resided or worked in the six water districts near the DuPont plant in
Parkersburg, WV and participated in the C8 Health Project. The C8 Health Project
collected data during August 2005 to August 2006 and participants completed a
questionnaire and gave a blood sample.
The blood was analyzed for C8 and a substantial set of clinical parameters. The
questionnaire included self-reported medical history and information on education,
smoking habits, age, and other characteristics which are taken into account in the
analyses. Self-reported medical history included questions about whether the
participant has ever been diagnosed with a number of diseases including cancers.
Some analyses will focus on the relationships between C8 blood levels and clinical
parameters, including the results of blood tests on liver enzymes, hormones, and
markers of immune function. Other analyses will investigate the relationship between
reported disease (including cancer, diseases indicating disturbance of the immune
system, disease related to hormone imbalances, liver and kidney disease) and
estimates of C8 exposure leading up to the reported date of diagnosis. These
exposure estimates will make use of measured C8 levels in blood and estimates of
exposure to C8 in the past. Comparisons are adjusted for other variables of
importance such as age, sex, smoking and weight.
The first phase of analyses uses the C8 concentrations measured at the time of the
C8 Health Project. The second phase will allow rates of disease to be analyzed in
relation to estimated past C8 exposure. This will focus on diseases including kidney,
liver, autoimmune and thyroid diseases and will take place in 2010 once we have
integrated historic exposure data and date of disease onset.
Short Term Follow-up Study of C8 and Immune, Liver, Kidney and Endocrine
Function
Outline of study
This study will primarily assess changes of some clinical markers in relation to
changes in C8, and detailed indicators of immune status, in a population of 800 of
the C8 Health Project participants who agreed to participate in Science Panel
studies. We will also assess the risk of common infectious disease and urinary
markers indicative of kidney disease.
These participants will be recalled and invited to participate in a second interview
and provide a second blood sample and a urine sample. Statistical analyses will
focus on the relationship between trends in C8 serum levels and trends in various
clinical markers: of immune, cancer, thyroid, endocrine, kidney and liver function;
both C8 and the biomarkers will then have been measured on two occasions. An
extended panel of tests for assessing immune function will be given and the
association with C8 investigated. In a subset of 400 of these participants, the extent
to which C8 modifies the protection afforded by influenza vaccination will be
assessed. The incidence of infectious disease in relation to C8 will be assessed by
both questionnaire data on self reported disease, including infectious diseases and
serological tests of recent latent viral infections, specifically herpes simplex virus
(HSV) infection.
The study will provide important new information because of its longitudinal nature; it
will consider change in biomarkers over time in relation to changes in C8 levels in
the blood. Particular attention will be given to markers of liver, kidney, endocrine and
immune function. Additional, more specific immune screening tests will allow the
assessment of the response of the immune system to C8 exposure, and infectious
disease risk in relation to C8 will also be assessed. Results are expected in 2011.
Results on biomarkers in this study are expected to provide important evidence for
the assessment of the relation between C8 and conditions including liver disease,
kidney disease, thyroid disease, and auto-immune disease.
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is Britain's national school of
public health and a leading postgraduate institution worldwide for research and
postgraduate education in global health.
Part of the University of London, the London School is the largest institution of its
kind in Europe with a remarkable depth and breadth of expertise encompassing
many disciplines. The School was ranked one of the top 3 research institutions in
the country in the Times Higher Education’s 'table of excellence', which is based on
the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), ahead of the London School of
Economics, Oxford, Imperial and University College, London. The institution also
achieved the largest increase in ranking compared with 2001 of any of the top 10
institutions in the RAE rankings.
The School’s environment is a rich multicultural one: every year over 800 students
come to the School from around 120 countries to study towards doctoral or master’s
degrees. The School has about 1200 staff drawn from around 45 nationalities.
There are research collaborations with over 100 countries throughout the world,
utilizing our critical mass of multidisciplinary expertise which includes clinicians,
epidemiologists, statisticians, social scientists, molecular biologists and
immunologists. At any one time around 80 School staff are based overseas,
particularly in Africa and Asia. We have a strong commitment to partnership with
institutions in low and middle income countries to support the development of
teaching and research capacity.
The School has expanded greatly in recent years. Its research funding now exceeds
£48 m per annum, much of it from highly competitive national and international
sources. The distance learning programme which was launched in 1998 now caters
for over 2000 students studying on four master’s programmes. The commitment of
staff to methodological rigour, innovative thinking and policy relevance will ensure
that the School continues to occupy a leadership position in national and global
health, adapting quickly to new challenges and opportunities.
Mission
The School's mission is to contribute to the improvement of health worldwide
through the pursuit of excellence in research, postgraduate teaching and advanced
training in national and international public health and tropical medicine, and through
informing policy and practice in these areas.
Organisation and Management
There are three academic departments within the School, one principally concerned
with infectious and tropical diseases and two with public health (Department of
Epidemiology & Population Health; Department of Public Health & Policy).
Department of Public Health and Policy
The Department of Public Health & Policy is responsible for research and teaching
in the policy, planning and evaluation of health programmes and services. Its
interests are both national and international, encompassing industrialized, and less
developed countries. The Department has three research units:
Health Services Research
Health Policy
Public and Environmental Health
Each unit is multidisciplinary containing about 50-70 academic staff representing
medicine, statistics, epidemiology, sociology, economics, anthropology, operational
research, psychology, nursing and history. Each unit is responsible for its own
research. The School has adopted a rotating system of management for its
academic units and departments. The management of a unit is under the control of
the Unit Head, appointed by the Director for a period of three years in the first
instance. The Department Head is appointed in a similar manner but for an initial
period of up to five years.
The Department currently has a staff of 19 professors, 7 readers, 26 senior
lecturers, 47 lecturers, 77 research fellows and assistants, about 40 computing,
administrative and secretarial staff, and a number of honorary staff.
Public and Environmental Health Research Unit (PEHRU)
The Public and Environmental Health Research Unit (Head Dr Kelley Lee) is a
research unit in the Department of Public Health and Policy within LSHTM. It was
formed on 1 August 2003 by bringing together the former Environmental
Epidemiology Unit, the Health Promotion Research Unit and the Globalization
Programme of the Health Policy Unit. PEHRU carries out internationally renowned
research into the social and environmental determinants of health and the evaluation
and analysis of public health policy. It has a strong multi-disciplinary focus, with
researchers from the fields of epidemiology, history, health economics, geographical
information systems, international relations, mathematical modelling, medicine and
ethics, political science, social science and statistics. Its principal research themes
include:
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Drugs and Health Behaviour
Health Promotion
Reproductive & Sexual Health
Environment & Health
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Ethics, Public Health & Human Rights
Globalization & Health
Health Impact & Decision Analysis
History and Health
Social Medicine
Its research includes work in both high- and low-income countries, and integrates
environmental, social and policy issues at international, national and local levels.
Staff in the Unit contribute to the masters teaching programmes, particularly the MSc
in Public Health. Our internationally based research students work on themes as
diverse as evaluation of health promotion policies and health impact assessment in
complex development projects to qualitative studies of lay understanding of public
health risks and methodological projects in environmental epidemiology and
statistical modelling.
Teaching
The Department of Public Health and Policy is responsible for organizing a one year
Master's course in Public Health, which allows students to take a general MSc in
Public Health, or to follow one of the following streams: Health Services
Management, Health Promotion, Environmental Health, or Health Services
Research. The Department also jointly teaches MSc Public Health in Developing
Countries and MSc Control of Infectious Disease (with the Departments of Infectious
and Tropical Diseases and Epidemiology and Population Health), and MSc Health
Policy, Planning and Financing (jointly with LSE). Master's courses are organized in
a modular format across the whole School. One of the growing areas of
Departmental teaching is in the distance-based MSc in Public Health, introduced in
2005/6. In the current year the Department is responsible for about 271 students on
the MScs mentioned above, and 545 distance based students.
The Department has also reorganized and expanded its research degree
(MPhil/PhD; DrPH) training. Currently there are about 108 students and 23 staff
members registered for a research degree.
Duties and responsibilities
1.
Research
 Carry out statistical analyses of dataset of 69,000 individuals with exposure
data at individual and to some extent geographic levels of aggregation. This
will include multivariable regression, both normal and logistic, of biomarkers
and prevalent disease in relation to exposure.
 Contribute to statistical analyses of immunophenotype, inflammatory and
other biomarkers, as well as genetic polymorphisms, in relation to exposure.
 Estimate quantitative relationships between exposure and response including
the investigation of the shapes of exposure response relations.
 Carry out where appropriate, structural equation or other causal modelling of
complex relations between of exposure biomarkers and disease.
 Draft and contribute to publications from the group
 Liaise and communicate on statistical issues with other members of the C8
Science Panel research teams.
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Be willing if necessary to travel to the US to meet with C8 Science Panel
Research partners; to travel to scientific meetings give presentations
Write and contribute to papers for peer reviewed journals
Keep a clear record of research carried out
2. Teaching
 Participate in the teaching programme of the Department of Public Health &
Policy, (up to 15% of available time) which may include acting as a tutor to
MSc students, organising a Teaching Unit, or organising an MSc.
 Be a member of several research degree students’ Advisory Committees and
(depending on the person’s qualifications) supervise up to three research
degree (MPhil/PhD, DrPH) students registered at the LSHTM;
 Undertake training in teaching.
3. Citizenship
 Contribute to the general activities of the Unit, Department and School that
help to promote the objectives of the LSHTM
4. Other
 Undertake any other duties that may be required which are consistent with
the nature and grade of the post, such as contributing to
statistical/epidemiological analyses and publications on other projects of Dr
Fletcher or in this research group.
 Prepare or contribute to the preparation of grant applications for further
funding.
Person specification
Essential
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PhD in statistics or a related-discipline, or equivalent research experience.
A high degree of competency with at least one statistical software package.
The ability to write clearly on statistics
Experience in epidemiological/health data analysis
The ability to learn new technical concepts fast
Proven ability to work in a team
Proven ability to work independently
Good organisational and administrative skills
Proficiency in standard office software
Desirable
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Track record of publications in peer reviewed journals commensurate with
years spent in research.
Experience with work on very large datasets
Experience with Stata and R
Experience with structural equation or other causal modelling
An ability to communicate effectively with people from a wide range of
disciplines
Experience of post-graduate teaching
Accountability
The Lecturer will be accountable to Tony Fletcher as the grant-holder and through
him to Dr Kelley Lee as Head of Unit, Professor Anne Mills as the Head of the
Department of Public Health & Policy, and ultimately to Professor Sir Andy Haines
as the Director of the School.
Salary and conditions of appointment
Salary will be on the Lecturer grade 7 (£41,106-£47,078) p.a inclusive as at 1 Oct
2008. The successful applicant will be placed on the scale according to relevant
qualifications. The post will be subject to the LSHTM terms and conditions of
service, and membership of the Universities Superannuation Scheme is available.
The post-holder will be supervised by Dr Tony Fletcher.
The School's retirement date is 30 September following the 65th birthday. It is the
School's policy not to appoint candidates aged 65 or over.
Applications
We encourage you to apply for this post online at our website jobs.lshtm.ac.uk.
The reference for this post will be TF02. Online applications will be accepted by the
automated system until midnight on 2 December 2009.
If you are unable to apply online, please contact us at jobs@lshtm.ac.uk or
telephone 0207 927 2173.
The supporting statement section should set out how your qualifications, experience
and training meet each of the selection criteria. Please provide one or more
paragraphs addressing each criterion. The supporting statement is an essential part
of the selection process and thus a failure to provide this information will mean that
the application will not be considered. An answer to any of the criteria such as
“Please see attached CV” will not be considered acceptable.
It is hoped to hold the interviews the week commencing 14th Dec 09.
Please note that if you are shortlisted and are unable to attend on the interview date
it may not be possible to offer you an alternative date.
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is committed to being an equal
opportunities employer.