GRAHAM CARTER
DEQAS Organiser
Graham started his professional career as a medical laboratory technician in a District General Hospital. After obtaining an MSc in clinical biochemistry at the University of Surrey (1972) he moved to London's Charing Cross Hospital as a Senior Biochemist. He was appointed Consultant Clinical Scientist in 1991 and remained in this post until his retirement from full time employment in September 2000. He was appointed an Honorary Senior Research Fellow of Imperial College, London in 2001.
Graham’s interest in vitamin D was stimulated by a visit to Dr. Richard Gray's laboratory at The Medical College of Wisconsin in the mid -1970's. The vitamin D EQAS was started in 1989 after two regional surveys revealed serious shortcomings in the performance of 25 hydroxyvitamin D assays. He was a member of the Advisory Panel for the Randox International Quality Assessment Scheme (RIQAS) from 1996 - 2002.
JACQUELINE BERRY
Jackie is a Senior Research Fellow in the Vitamin D Research Laboratories at the University of Manchester. She started her career as a Pharmacologist gaining a BSc from Leeds University (1972), followed by an MSc (1974) and PhD (1977) from the University of Manchester. Following a short period in the Department of Surgery she moved to the Department of Medicine to work with Professor Barbara Mawer in 1979. This started a lifelong interest in metabolic bone disease with a particular focus on vitamin D and assay methodology. In the early 1980s she helped develop an improved assay for measurement of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25D) using a monoclonal antibody, and this in-house assay is still in use today. Since 1994 she has been Deputy Director of the only Supraregional Assay Service in England and Wales for the combined assay of 25-hydroxyvitamin D with 1,25D, for which she gained ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 13485:2003 accreditation. Current research sponsored by Cancer Research UK and Food Standards Agency examines the relative contributions of diet and UV exposure to vitamin D “sufficiency” in the British population. She is a committee member of the British Bone Research Society.
ELAINE GUNTER
Elaine Gunter B.S., MT(ASCP) was chief of the NHANES Laboratory (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) from 1978-2001. This world-class nutritional biochemistry laboratory, specializes in assays for vitamins, trace elements, and nutritional anemias, and was founded in 1971 as the central laboratory for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of the United States. Data from NHANES provided the first national normative estimates of vitamin D status in the U.S. population. Elaine's laboratory also provided the vitamin D analyses for the NCI-funded Navy Colon Adenoma Study, which demonstrated the efficacy of vitamin D supplementation in prevention of colon cancer, and a number of other related vitamin D studies.Elaine founded and served as the first president of ISBER, the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories. From 2001-2005, she was Deputy Director for Management and Operations of the Division of Laboratory Sciences (the chemistry side of CDC), responsible for ensuring the successful management of all the personnel, facilities, procurement, contractual grants, and operational processes for a staff of 300 scientists. She is now an independent consultant in specimen banking and laboratory activities, and continues to make scientific contributions in those fields.
GLENVILLE JONES
Glen received BSc and PhD degrees in biochemistry from Liverpool University before completing his postdoctoral training at the University of Calgary and University of Wisconsin-Madison. After holding Assistant/Associate Professor positions at the Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children/University of Toronto (1975-84), Glen joined Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, and is currently a full Professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Medicine (1988-present). He was involved in the early design and application of clinical assays for vitamin D metabolites in patients with disorders of calcium homeostasis.
His research has helped to define the cytochrome-mediated mechanism by which 1a, 25- (OH)2D3 is destroyed after it has performed its action in the body. Current interests include study of the cytochromes involved in the action and clearance of vitamin D analogs, new drugs in the treatment of psoriasis, osteoporosis and cancer. Glen has been an associate editor of the American J Bone & Mineral Research as well as being grant reviewer for the MRC of Canada (1986-1996) and NIH/NCI in USA.
HUGH MAKIN
Hugh obtained his PhD at the institute of Child Health, University of London in 1966 and was awarded the degree DSc in 1996 for his research on steroid analysis. He has been successively Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Professor in the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at St. Bartholomew's & the Royal London School of Medicine & Dentistry since joining the Medical School in 1967. His research interests involve the use of GC-MS for the measurement of vitamin D metabolites and, in collaboration with Glen Jones, the use of mass spectrometry for the identification of calcitriol analogue metabolites both in vivo and in vitro. Hugh was the Programme Adviser to the UK Food Standards Agency Phytoestrogen Research Programme which supported a phytoestrogen quality assurance scheme organised by the Institute of Food Research in Norwich.
SAULAT SUFI
Saulat has been involved with the development and standardisation of immunoassays since 1968. He was a Consultant Clinical Biochemist at the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust and had been the director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Immunoassay for over 20 years when he took early retirement in 2000. He is still a training adviser to the British Council, and continues to act as a consultant on the provision of bioanalytical services to UN agencies, national governments and pharmaceutical companies. His interest in laboratory quality issues and technology transfer/appropriate technology started early in his career. In the early 1970's he wrote computer programs used by the UK EQA schemes for PTH, digoxin and calcitonin and helped to operate the UK EQA Scheme for thyroid hormones. He helped organised over 40 international training courses on analytical quality/interpretation related issues and was in charge of the WHO EQA Scheme for Reproductive Hormones for its entire period of operation (1977 - 2000), monitoring the performance of centres in over 50 countries and has helped centres to set up national and regional EQA Schemes.
MIKE WHEELER
Mike obtained his first degree in Zoology at the University of Wales before achieving a PhD at the University of Sheffield for the Study of Biochemical Function during Sleep. During this latter period he learnt and developed a number of steroid assays. In 1972 he moved to the King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor as a researcher and set up radioimmunoassays for LH, FSH, Prolactin and HPL. He joined St Thomas' Hospital, London in October 1973 as a Senior Biochemist. He recently retired in 2005 as Consultant Clinical Scientist at Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust where he was also Deputy Head of the Department of Chemical Pathology and Director of the Supra-regional Assay Service (SAS) Hormone Service. He is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Kings College, London.
His specialist interests are External Quality Assessment (EQA), immunoassay, automation and steroid biochemistry. He set up the first EQA schemes for steroids in the UK in 1974. He served for many years on the UK NEQAS Steering Committee for Hormones and was an original member of the EQA committee of CPA (Clinical Pathology Accreditation), the major accreditation body for clinical pathology laboratories and EQA schemes in the UK. He continues to be a CPA assessor. He was Director of the Medical Devices Agency (MDA) Evaluation Unit at St Thomas' Hospital for over 10 years, evaluating immunoassays and associated automated equipment. This unit was amalgamated with the unit at the University of Surrey in 2002 where he acts as Consultant for immunoassay-related evaluations. He has served on numerous professional committees and was on the organising committee of the EuroLab Automation meetings in the UK.