Aiden Doherty

I am an Associate Professor and Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. My research group develops reproducible methods to analyse wearable sensor data in very large health studies to better understand the causes and consequences of disease. For example, we have developed methods to objectively measure physical activity in UK Biobank which are now actively used by researchers worldwide to demonstrate new associations with cardiovascular disease, depression, mood disorders, and others. These have allowed us to show that the lowest risk for cardiovascular disease in the UK Biobank cohort is seen at the highest level of accelerometer-measured physical activity, whether total, moderate-intensity, or vigorous-intensity. We have also developed machine learning methods to identify sleep and functional physical activity behaviours such as walking. In addition, we have discovered the first genetic variants associated with machine-learned sensor phenotypes. This work shows the first genetic evidence that physical activity might causally lower blood pressure.

Our group has also conducted research on wearable cameras, and are interested in other wearable sensors that can help better understand the causes and consequences of disease. If you are interested in joining our research group, please do get in contact. 

In 2015 I was one of only three EU Marie Curie Award winners (from ~9000 fellowship holders), selected for my contributions to health sensor data analysis. I have also contributed to the creation of guidelines on the use of mobile devices in clinical trials, in collaboration with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) supported Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative on “Mobile Clinical Trials”.

Awards

2015 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions COFUND Award (only 3 selected from ~9000 EU fellows between ’07-’13)

2015-17 British Heart Foundation Centre for Research Excellence intermediate transition fellowship

2010-13 Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship (E.U. FP7 and Irish Health Research Board)

2005-08 Irish Research Council science PhD scholarship