infectious diseases doctor, UCLH

Prof. Chris van Tulleken is a doctor, scientist, broadcaster, and bestselling author whose work explores the intersection of medicine, public health, and the environment. He is an Associate Professor at University College London in the Division of Infection and Immunity, specializing in infectious diseases and global health. Alongside his twin brother, Dr. Xand van Tulleken, he has become a well-known face in science communication, bringing complex medical and scientific issues to the public through television, radio, podcasts, and books.

In 2023, Chris’s book Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food… and Why Can’t We Stop? became a critical and commercial success, topping bestseller lists and sparking widespread debate about the role of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in modern diets. The book has been praised for its rigorous research and accessible storytelling, leading to increased public awareness of the impact of UPFs on health and policy discussions on food regulation.

Chris and Xand launched their first podcast, A Thorough Examination with Drs Chris and Xand, in the summer of 2021. The series quickly topped podcast charts, with the first season following Xand’s journey into the world of ultra-processed food, where he explored its addictive qualities under Chris’s guidance. In the second series, launched in 2022, they examined whether and how people can change their habits and behaviours.

Their unique ability to combine entertainment with science has led to numerous successful TV projects. In 2019, they presented Twinsitute for BBC Two, an experiment-driven series where they and 30 other identical twin pairs tested competing health theories.

Chris’s concerns about antibiotic resistance and the overuse of prescription medications led him to create The Doctor Who Gave Up Drugs for BBC One in 2017. The series, which resonated strongly with audiences, was followed by a second instalment in 2018, focusing on children and their medication use. Continuing his investigative work, Chris explored the effects of ultra-processed foods on children in the acclaimed BBC One documentary What Are We Feeding Our Kids?

In 2017, he also presented The Truth About… HIV, a BBC One documentary featuring support from HRH Prince Harry and Sir Elton John, aiming to challenge misconceptions and raise awareness about the virus.

Chris and Xand are also the presenters of CBBC’s Operation Ouch, the double BAFTA and Broadcast Award-winning CBBC series that teaches children about human biology. Now in its 13th series, the show continues to inspire young audiences worldwide. Their Operation Ouch Live stage show has played to sold-out audiences in London’s West End and Australia.

Beyond broadcasting, Chris has worked as a doctor in some of the world’s harshest environments, including Arctic expeditions and remote jungle regions – Medicine Men Go Wild (2008) saw him and Xand examine the limitations of Western medicine in remote locations.

Chris’s contributions to science and public health have been widely recognised. In 2016, he won the Max Perutz Award for his research on HIV.  He became an infection and global health professor at UCLH in 2025.

Founder & Director, Dolitics

Dr Dolly van Tulleken is a policy consultant and Visiting Researcher at Cambridge University’s MRC Epidemiology Unit where she completed a PhD and postdoctoral research position examining UK government obesity policy. Dolly runs her policy consultancy Dolitics, mainly focused on food and health policy. She co-founded 50:50 Parliament’s cross-party #AskHerToStand campaign which helps women in the UK get selected and elected. Dolly is also Vice President of ex-offenders employment charity Tempus Novo and an ambassador of military veterans charity Forward Assist.

Surgeon & Author

Mr James Kinross is a reader in Colorectal Surgery and a Consultant Surgeon at Imperial College London. His clinical interest is in minimally invasive and robotic surgery for colorectal cancer. James is currently head of Speciality at Imperial College NHS trust and has had several senior academic leadership roles at Imperial College London, and he is a co-director of an MSc in healthcare design. He is a graduate of the NIHR leadership programme and he was an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Surgery and an Ethicon Laparoscopic Fellow in Colorectal Surgery. He was awarded a Royal College of Surgeons of England training fellowship during his PhD on the gut microbiome and he was funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences as an early stage lecturer. He is a visiting Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. He is currently funded by CRUK, DASA, UKRI, Horizon 2020 and the EPSRC. He performs translational research into the microbiome and was a co-investigator on the EU funded GROWTH consortium, studying how breast milk influences the co-evolution of the gut microbiome. His first book, Dark Matter, the new science of the microbiome was published in 2023. He is currently supervising seven PhD students, and he has published over 200 peer reviewed papers.

FOUNDER, RANDOX Health

Dr FitzGerald founded Randox in 1982 in a converted ‘Hen House’ at the back of his parent’s house in Crumlin, Co. Antrim.  Since then, the company has grown to over 3,000 staff worldwide including 800 R&D Scientists & Engineers, with customers in over 145 countries. Randox develop, manufacture and market a wide range of clinical and veterinary diagnostic reagents and systems. Randox supplies 100,000 laboratories globally and is the fourth largest manufacturer of clinical chemistry reagents in the world.

Dr FitzGerald was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2011 for services to business in Northern Ireland. He has gained many other accolades in his career to date; named a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) and Innovation Founder of the Year 2013 from the Northern Ireland Science Park, to name a few.

Functional Medicine practitioner and Fellow in Integrative Oncology, Embracing Nutrition

Jo Gamble is the UK’s first functional medicine practitioner. She is the owner of busy functional medicine clinic in the UK. Jo’s speciality is in Oncology and supporting those on their cancer journey.

 Paediatrician, Cambridge Children’s Hospital

I am a Paediatrician with extensive experience in children’s Inpatient mental health, with expertise in how childhood traumatic experiences intersects with neurodevelopmental differences and how that translates to a child’s mental health and behaviour, within their family context.

I have an interest in body/mind medicine and how viewing health and illness through an holistic lens can support clinicians to help children and young people thrive. With this in mind, I have been involved in designing Cambridge Children’s Hospital which has a vision of integrating physical and mental health. I have been particularly involved as the clinical lead of ‘food with care’, our food workstream, in considering how food in the new hospital can be approached in a way that provides excellent nutrition, but also maintains normality for children, young people and their families, whilst aiding recovery.

public health doctor at UCL Institute for Global Health

Nigel Field is Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Director of the Centre of Molecular Epidemiology and Translational Research at the UCL Institute for Global Health. He leads independent, internationally-competitive research teams which investigate, (1) how microbes colonise babies and the subsequent physical and mental health effects (BBS and CGULL studies), and (2) sexual health and the vaginal microbiome at population level in the UK (Natsal study). Nigel led large, multi-disciplinary, and international groups to write the STROME-ID and STROBE-Metagenomics extensions of the STROBE guidelines, which have established international reporting standards for infectious disease epidemiology. He is editor of a new postgraduate textbook called, ‘Molecular Epidemiology for Infectious Diseases’, and he co-created the UCL MSc in Applied Infectious Infectious Disease Epidemiology in 2019, and has a long-standing track record in training future generations of epidemiogists.

Regius Professor of Psychiatry, King’s College London

Edward Bullmore studied medicine at the University of Oxford and St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, before training as a psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital, and completing a PhD in brain MRI analysis at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. He moved to Cambridge as Professor of Psychiatry in 1999 and his research on brain networks and development of severe mental health disorders has since been highly cited. He was Head of the Department of Psychiatry, then Deputy Head of the School of Clinical Medicine in the University of Cambridge from 2014 to 2024. From 2005 to 2019, he also worked half-time for GlaxoSmithKline, focusing on the links between inflammation and depression, as described in his first book, The Inflamed Mind. He has recently published another book, The Divided Mind, about the past, present and future of schizophrenia. His scientific work has been recognised by election to the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2025, he returned to King’s College London as the Regius Professor of Psychiatry and Head of the School of Academic Psychiatry.