Naomi E Allen

Naomi Allen is a British epidemiologist who is a 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.

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. She graduated during a recession, and says that she "drifted from one awful job to another".

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.

Allen joined UK Biobank as an epidemiologist in 2011. 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. Allen hopes that the UK Biobank helps researchers do better risk prediction, improving ability to characterise risk of developing conditions such as breast cancer. revealing that 8% of the UK population have triple a normal heart disease risk. 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.

Selected publications