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Michael Parker

Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Ethox Centre

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Department Research Areas

Recent Publications

Email
Tel 01865 287885
Fax 01865 287884
Contact address The Ethox Centre Division of Public Health and Primary Health Care University of Oxford Badenoch Building Old Road Campus Headington Oxford OX3 7LF
College St Cross College
Michael Parker

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 ethical and social dimensions of collaborative global health research. He leads the ethics programmes of the Malaria Genomic Epidemiology Network (MalariaGEN) www.malariagen.net which carries out genomic research into severe malaria in childhood at 24 sites in 21 countries (funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health as part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative). He also leads the ethics programme of the MRC Centre for Genomics and Global Health and is the Principal Investigator of the Collaborative Global Health Research Ethics Network (funded by a Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Enhancement Award).  Michael's other research activities include: the use of medical records for research (funded by the Medical Research Council); ethics in cardiovascular genomics (funded by the European Commission); and the governance of genetic databases (funded by the Wellcome Trust).

Since 2001, Michael has 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 provides the background to Michael's other main research interest which is in the ethical aspects of the clinical use of genetics.

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 Advisory Board of DECIPHER. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. 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 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

 

 

Research Grants

 

    • 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).