James Liu

James was awarded a Novo Nordisk Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to work with Prof Zhengming Chen (Oxford Population Health) and Dr Joanna Howson (Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford) in December 2022.

His research focusses on triangulating and investigating the molecular phenotype and mechanism of type 2 diabetes (T2D) applying various epidemiological approaches (e.g., genetic epidemiology methods, Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis, traditional epidemiology methods) across diverse populations (e.g., UK population and Chinese population), which might provide both public health and therapeutic insights on T2D prevention/treatments.

James underwent medical training (Preventive Medicine) in Sun Yat-sen University, China (2010 - 2015). He subsequently completed his PhD degree in Epidemiology from The University of Hong Kong under the supervision of Prof Gabriel Leung, and Dr C. Mary Schooling (2015 – 2019) examining the associations across birth weight, liver function, and T2D/cardiovascular diseases.

Prior to Oxford, I worked as a senior research associate in the MRC/IEU, University of Bristol (2019 – 2022) mentored by Prof Deborah Lawlor, Prof Martin Rutter, and Prof Jack Bowden investigating the effects of sleep disorders (e.g., lack of sleep, insomnia, evening chorotype) on T2D risk with the use of MR methods.