Professor George Davey Smith
FRS, MD, DSc, MSc, FMedSci, FRCP, FFPH
Current positions
Professor of Clinical Epidemiology
Bristol Medical School (PHS)
Contact
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Biography
causal inference in studies of disease aetiology and disease prevention. His work has
involved early implementation of ‘negative controls’ in epidemiological studies, the use of
cross-context comparisons, sensitivity analyses, unobtrusive data collection methods and
randomized trials in thought-to-be difficult situations. He pioneered the use of germline
genetic variants for investigating modifiable causes of disease (‘Mendelian randomization’),
developed several extensions of the basic method, and contributed to its application in many
settings. He is an advocate of the pre-specified application of a range of methods, with
different structures of potential biases, to the same question (‘triangulation’), as the key
approach to strengthening causal inference. Throughout his career he has promoted
increasing the accessibility of data, and implemented this in studies he has led, including the
Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and their Children (ALSPAC).
Research interests
George Davey Smith is a clinical epidemiologist who has focused on methods for improving causal inference in studies of disease aetiology and disease prevention. His work has involved early implementation of ‘negative controls’ in epidemiological studies, the use of cross-context comparisons, sensitivity analyses, unobtrusive data collection methods and randomized trials in thought-to-be difficult situations. He pioneered the use of germline genetic variants for investigating modifiable causes of disease (‘Mendelian randomization’), developed several extensions of the basic method, and contributed to its application in many settings. He is an advocate of the pre-specified application of a range of methods, with different structures of potential biases, to the same question (‘triangulation’), as the key approach to strengthening causal inference. Throughout his career he has promoted increasing the accessibility of data, and implemented this in studies he has led, including the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and their Children (ALSPAC).
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Integrative Epidemiology Unit
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/04/2023 to 31/03/2028
Identifying causal risk factors for cognitive decline
Role
Co-Principal Investigator
Description
Takeda industry partner grant to examine causal risk factors for cognitive decline in the TOMMORROW trialManaging organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
01/11/2020 to 30/11/2022
Thesis supervisions
Geographical gene-environment interaction and correlation for mental health in the UK and Sweden
Supervisors
Exploring the aetiology and phenotypic consequences of non-syndromic cleft lip/palate using polygenic risk scoring and Mendelian randomization
Supervisors
Strengthening causal inference in educational inequalities in cardiovascular disease
Supervisors
Variance quantitative trait loci
Supervisors
Extra-pulmonary effects of lung function and lung disease
Supervisors
Causal implications of common infections and platelet function on cardiovascular disease
Supervisors
Genetic and epidemiologic approaches to elucidate the role of abnormal hip shape in the development of hip osteoarthritis
Supervisors
Using genetics to explore the effects of metabolic traits in head and neck cancer
Supervisors
Sensitivity analyses for causal inference
Supervisors
Classifying mechanisms of pleiotropy to improve causal modelling
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
26/01/2024Hip shape shows a causal effect on hip fracture but not hip osteoarthritis: findings from a GWAS meta-analysis and causal analyses
Association between circulating inflammatory markers and adult cancer risk
EBioMedicine
Characterizing the Causal Pathway From Childhood Adiposity to Right Heart Physiology and Pulmonary Circulation Using Lifecourse Mendelian Randomization
Journal of the American Heart Association
Evaluating the Cardiovascular Impact of Genetically Proxied PCSK9 and HMGCR Inhibition in East Asian and European Populations
Circulation
Genomic insights into the comorbidity between type 2 diabetes and schizophrenia
Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany)