Research Areas

Department Research Areas

• Clinical Ethics

• Research Ethics

• Global Health Ethics

Michael Parker

Michael Parker is Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Ethox Centre at the University of Oxford. His main research interest is in the ethics of collaborative global health research. Together with partners at the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programmes (MOPs) in Viet Nam, Malawi, Thailand-Laos, Kenya, and South Africa he co-ordinates the Global Health Bioethics Network - www.globalhealthbioethics.net - which is a programme to carry out ethics research and build ethics capacity across the MOPs. The Global Health Bioethics Network is funded through a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award. Michael also leads the ethics programme of the Malaria Genomic Epidemiology Network (MalariaGEN) - www.malariagen.net - which carries out genomic research into severe malaria in childhood at more than 30 sites in 21 countries.

Michael's other main research interest is in the ethical aspects of the clinical use of genetics. Since 2001, he has - with Anneke Lucassen, Tara Clancy and Angus Clarke - co-ordinated the Genethics Club - www.genethicsclub.org - a national ethics forum for health professionals and genetics laboratory staff in the United Kingdom to discuss the ethical issues arising in their day-to-day practice and to share good practice. This work has been published as Ethical Problems and Genetics Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Michael is on a number of committees and working parties. He is a member of the Data Access Committee of the Welcome Trust Case-Control Consortium, the Ethics in Practice Committee of the Royal College of Physicians, the Department of Health's Committee for the Ethical Aspects of Pandemic Influenza, and the Medical Research Council’s Ethics, Regulation and Public Involvement Committee. He is also an ethics consultant to UK Biobank. He has previously been a member of a number of national and international committees and working parties including: Lord Warner’s Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on Research Ethics, the Ministerial Task Force on the Summary Care Record, the Academy of Medical Sciences Working Party on the regulation of medical research, the Nuffield Council of Bioethics Working Group on the substitution of mitochondrial DNA, the Royal College of Physicians Working Party on Clinical Ethics Committees, the Steering Committee of the UK Clinical Ethics Network, and the Board of Directors of the International Association of Bioethics.

Current DPhil Supervision

• Virginia Bovell: Is the prevention or cure of autism a morally justified quest?
• Ganle Kuumuori: Barriers to accessing and using formal antenatal, delivery and postnatal care services in Ghana (Wellcome Trust Scholarship)
  
• Caroline Huang: Ethical and policy implications of the BRCA1/BRCA2 gene mutations: perspectives from the British and American genetic systems (Rhodes Scholarship)
  

• Aisha Malik: Ethics of research from the perspective of developing countries: Pakistan as a case study (Wellcome Trust Studentship)
• Vicki Marsh: Strengthening ethical practice in population-based genetics and genomics research: participant views arising from Sickle-cell disease screening activities in East Africa
• Nguyen Thi Cam Binh: Research Ethics in emerging infectious diseases: the case of influenza pandemic (Wellcome Trust Studentship)
• Paulina Tindana: Export, storage and future use of human tissues: developing a framework for fair benefit-sharing in international collaborative research (Wellcome Trust Studentship)

Research Grants

• 2011      The Global Health Bioethics Network: a programme to carry out ethics research and build ethics capacity across the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programmes in Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Thailand-Laos, and Viet Nam. Wellcome Trust Strategic Award.
  
• 2010      Deciphering Developmental Disorders Health Innovation Challenge Fund, Department of Health and Wellcome Trust (£10,159,258) Co-applicant in team led by Dr Nigel Carter at Sanger Institute.
• 2010     Consent to and community engagement in health research – reviewing and developing research and practice Wellcome Trust (£29,300) Co-applicant with Susan Bull, Phaik Yeong Chaeah, Khin Maung Lwin, Vicki Marsh, Sassy Molyneux and Sally Theobald.
• 2010     Resource centre for genomic epidemiology of malaria, Wellcome Trust Strategic Award (£6,196,093) Principal Investigator in team led by Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski
• 2009     The ethics of collaborative global health research: a network to build capacity in the United Kingdom and in Developing Countries, Wellcome Trust  (£370,000) Principal applicant with Susan Bull, Ray Fitzpatrick, Tony Hope and Sassy Molyneux.
• 2008     Ethical issues in the care of vulnerable adults, Ethox Foundation (£211,000) Principal applicant with Tony Hope.
• 2007     PROCARDIS, European Commission (10m Euro) Co-applicant in team led by Professor Hugh Watkins.
• 2007     MRC Translational Centre for Genomic Epidemiology of Infectious Disease, Medical Research Council (£2.9 million) Principal Investigator in team led by Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski.
• 2007     Collaborative Workshop to Develop a Multidisciplinary Social Science and Ethics Research Agenda, Kilifi, Kenya, Wellcome Trust Symposium Award ($8,200) Principal applicant with Sassy Molyneux and Jantina de Vries.
• 2007     Developing a Strategic Plan for Ethics Provision at the University of Oxford, John Fell Fund (£105,360) Principal applicant with Jane Kaye, Julian Savulescu, Mark Sheehan, and Tony Hope.
• 2006     IBD Chip, European Commission Co-applicant in team led by Derek Jewell
• 2005     Virtual Organisations for Trials and Epidemiological Studies (VOTES), Medical Research Council (£2,919,266) Principal Investigator in team led by Professor Rory Collins.
• 2005     Governing Genetic Databases, Wellcome Trust (£350,000) Principal applicant with Jane Kaye and Andrew Smart.
• 2005     Cancer genetics- research or clinical care: Lay and professional understanding of cancer genetics activities in the UK, Cancer Research UK (£127,000) Co-applicant with Nina Hallowell and Anneke Lucassen.
• 2005     MalariaGEN: Learning from the human genome how protective immunity against malaria works Wellcome Trust and Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, Grand Challenges in Global Health (US$ 16,400,000) Principal Investigator in team led by Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski.
• 2002     The development of an electronic bioethics and society resource for the UK, Wellcome Trust (£320,242) Principal applicant with Professor Ruth Chadwick and Professor Julian Kinderlerer.
• 2002     Oxford Genetics Knowledge Park, Department of Health and the Department of Trade and Industry (£3,685,757) Principal Investigator in team led by John Bell.
• 2002     The use of ethics in multidisciplinary research into the ethical, social, legal and policy aspects of biomedical science: a national symposium, Wellcome Trust (£3,000) Principal Investigator.
• 2001     Alternative approaches to bioethics, The Royal Dutch Academy (£14,000) Co-applicant with Richard Ashcroft, Marian Verkerk and Guy Widdershoven.
• 2001     Ethical issues in clinical genetics: a national symposium, Wellcome Trust (£2,500) Principal Investigator with Anneke Lucassen and Angus Clarke.
• 2000     Clinical ethics in intensive care: a comparison of the British and German approaches, The British Council (£3,500) Principal Investigator.
• 1999     Visiting Scholarship, University of Melbourne (£3,000).