Associate Professor Iona Millwood
Iona Millwood
DPhil
Associate Professor; Deputy Director of Graduate Studies
Iona co-leads a Genetic Epidemiology module for the MSc in Global Health Science and Epidemiology. She joined the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU) in 2009, to work on the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB), including designing and conducting genomic and multi-omic assays to enhance and develop the CKB resources.
Her current research interests focus on using genetic and molecular epidemiology to understand the aetiology of cardio-metabolic and other chronic diseases, using genetic approaches to identify and evaluate potential drug targets, and investigating the role of infection in cancer risk, and the health effects of alcohol consumption.
Iona completed an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge and a DPhil in Molecular Genetics at the University of Oxford. She worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London, on large-scale genetic epidemiological projects including the Northern Finland Birth Cohorts. Iona also spent several years as a Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Australia, developing and conducting clinical trials for biomedical methods of HIV prevention in Australia and South-East Asia.
Recent publications
A scalable high-throughput serolomics platform for profiling serum antibody responses in large-scale population-based cohorts.
Journal article
Kröller L. et al, (2026), Nat Protoc
Breastfeeding and risk of maternal type 2 diabetes: a prospective cohort study of 280 000 women in China.
Journal article
Kaminer J. et al, (2026), BMJ Open, 16
Liver Aging Index: A Noninvasive Score for Liver Biological Aging and Liver-Related Outcomes in Multicohorts.
Journal article
Wu Z. et al, (2026), Aging Cell, 25
Burden and Correlates of Multiple Chronic Infections and Their Associations With Cancer Incidence in Chinese Adults: A Large Case-Cohort Study.
Journal article
Yang L. et al, (2026), Int J Cancer
Genome-wide meta-analysis across East Asian and European populations provides insights into the molecular basis of lung cancer.
Journal article
Zhu M. et al, (2026), Genome Med
