The Burgess Research Group
Stephen Burgess
Group leader
Stephen completed his BA and MMath (Part III) in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. He studied for a PhD in the MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge, from 2008-11 working on methods for Mendelian randomization analysis under the supervision of Simon Thompson. He joined the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care of the University of Cambridge in 2011. In 2013, Stephen was awarded a Wellcome Trust entry-level fellowship (Sir Henry Wellcome Post-doctoral Fellowship) to continue theoretical and applied work in the field of Mendelian randomization. In 2017, he moved to the MRC Biostatistics Unit on a Wellcome Trust/Royal Society intermediate fellowship (Sir Henry Dale Fellowship) to establish a research group in the MRC Biostatistics Unit, where he is now a Programme Leader. In 2023, he was given a Career Development Award by the Wellcome Trust to continue work in this area. He became a Research Professor in October 2025. He leads a small team of researchers split between the MRC Biostatistics Unit and the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit. He is always open to requests for collaboration, either on theoretical or applied Mendelian randomization projects.
Stephen also has a part-time role at Sequoia Genetics, as their Director of Statistics.
Research Associates
Amy Mason
Amy is a research associate in the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit (CEU) at the University of Cambridge. She uses the statistical methods developed by this group and the UK Biobank dataset to answer causal questions about heart disease and other illnesses. Amy’s current work plans include coding R packages for easier investigations of non-linear causal associations, and investigating the evidence for traditional risk factors of acute coronary disease in non-White European populations. (Google Scholar | GitHub)
Ashish Patel
Ash is a senior research associate working on methods to tackle unobserved confounding, selection bias, and general causal inference problems encountered in biostatistics. He is also interested how to make honest inferences after data-driven model selection. He completed his PhD in Economics at the University of Cambridge, where his research centred on improving inference in models that are described by moment restrictions, with a particular focus on empirical likelihood and missing data. (Google Scholar)
Ville Karhunen
Ville is a senior research associate at the MRC Biostatistics Unit. Ville’s background is in statistics, and he has completed a PhD in statistical and molecular epidemiology. His main research interests are causal inference and high-dimensional data-analysis, and their applications in molecular epidemiology. (Google Scholar | GitHub)
Ang Zhou
Ang is a research associate at the MRC Biostatistics Unit. Before joining Stephen’s group, his research focused on utilizing genetic data to understand the causal relationships between nutritional and modifiable lifestyle factors, and health outcomes, particularly in cognitive and cardiometabolic functions. In his current role, Ang is transitioning his research towards methods development, with a focus on instrument selection for the cis-Mendelian randomization analysis. (Google Scholar)
Emily Bassett
Emily is a part time Research Associate at the MRC Biostatistics Unit with a background in Philosophy. She is interested in questions around how to interpret and communicate causality in epidemiology, including ethical questions around interpretation. (PhilPapers)
Daianna Gonzalez
Daianna is a Research Assistant who joined the group in September 2025. Her research focuses on the identification of causal mechanisms of disease and drug response that vary across strata of the popualtion. (Google Scholar | GitHub)
PhD Students
Nasir Bashir
Nasir joined the group as a PhD student in October 2024, under a fellowship from the Wellcome Trust. His research centres around the development and application of methods to make inference from large-scale data. Nasir originally trained as a dentist at the University of Birmingham, followed by clinical academic posts at the University of Bristol, University of Leeds, and general practice. He then retrained in mathematics, obtaining an MSc in Statistics from the University of Sheffield. (Google Scholar)
Linxuan Zhang
Linxuan joined the group as a PhD student in October 2025, under an iCase studentship run in conjunction with Sequoia Genetics. His research develops statistical and machine learning methods to integrate large-scale genetic and molecular data, with a focus on combining AI and causal inference to inform drug discovery. He previously worked as a Data Scientist applying genomic data to target identification, and holds degrees from Oxford (MMath) and Imperial College London (MSc). (Sequoia profile)
James Lane
James is a PhD student who joined the group in October 2023. Before taking up his PhD, James visited the group as part of a summer intern project in 2022, supervised by Ashish Patel. (Substack)
Long running guests
Apostolos Gkatzionis
Apostolos was a post-doctoral researcher at the MRC Biostatistics Unit in Cambridge between 2017 and 2020, and is now working as a Senior Research Associate at the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit in Bristol. He is a statistician by training, with a particular interest in causal inference and genetic epidemiology. In his current research, he is developing statistical methods to adjust for selection bias in Mendelian randomization studies. While being a member of Steve Burgess’ group, he has also worked on variable selection methods for pleiotropy-robust Mendelian randomization, as well as Mendelian randomization using correlated genetic variants. (Google Scholar | GitHub)
Benjamin Woolf
Benji was a part time PhD Research Assistant at the MRC Biostatistics Unit between 2024 and 2026, and is now working at Imperial College London on a bridging fellowship. He is interested in most things to do with Mendelian randomisation, especially novel applications such as to second-hand smoking and new drug targets. (Google Scholar)
Dipender Gill
Dipender is a clinician scientist who trained at the University of Oxford and went on to become a Specialist Registrar in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. In 2019, he completed a PhD at Imperial College London focusing on the leverage of genetic data to identify causal mechanisms and therapeutic targets in cardiometabolic disease. Dr Gill went on to work for more than 3 years at Novo Nordisk, where he was responsible for optimizing incorporation of human-centric evidence across the portfolio. In this role, Dr Gill generated evidence that was integral to developing the GLP1, IL6, FGF21 and CNP programs. With over 300 peer-reviewed publications, he remains active in both clinical practice and research.
As current CEO of Sequoia Genetics, a London-based consultancy specializing in leveraging human genetic data to generate translational insights, Dr Gill works with investors, biotech and pharma on maximizing the efficiency of drug discovery and development efforts. (Google Scholar | Sequoia profile)
Verena Zuber
Verena was a post-doctoral researcher at the MRC Biostatistics Unit in Cambridge between 2016 and 2018, and is now working as a lecturer at Imperial College London. (Google Scholar | GitHub)
Former members
| Janne Pott: Janne was a research associate at the MRC Biostatistics Unit in Cambridge between 2024 and 2026, and is now working as a Statistical Geneticist at the University Hospital of Copenhagen. While a member of the Burgess group, her research focused on sex-stratified genetic analyses, in particular, on gene-sex-interactions in dimorphic traits and how that translate into causality on complex diseases. (Google Scholar | GitHub) |
|
Toinét Cronjé: Toinét was a research associate at the MRC Biostatistics Unit in Cambridge between 2024 and 2025, and is now working in industry as part of Sequoia Genetics. While a member of the Burgess group, her research focused on advancing the methods and application of the drug target Mendelian randomization paradigm to inform drug development for psychiatric disorders. (Google Scholar) |
|
Eric Slob: Eric was a Postdoctoral Associate at the MRC Biostatistics Unit in Cambridge between 2020 and 2023, and is now working as an Assistant Professor at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences. He has a background in Econometrics and Genetics, with a particularly interest in developing methods using genetic information to describe complex traits and using genetic information for causal inference. While being a member of the Burgess group, he worked on methods for Mendelian randomization and for colocalization. (Google Scholar) |
|
Fatima Batool: Fatima was a research associate in the MRC Biostatistics Unit from 2020 until 2023. She moved on to an Assistant Professor position at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. (Google Scholar) |
|
Chris Foley: Chris was a research associate in the MRC Biostatistics Unit until 2019. (Google Scholar) |
Previous Students
PhD Students
|
Bruce Liu: Bruce was a PhD student in the MRC Biostatistics Unit at the University of Cambridge supervised by Stephen Burgess, who graduated in 2025. He is currently working as part of the MRC Biostatistics Unit to write up papers from his PhD thesis. |
|
Haodong Tian: Haodong was a PhD student in the MRC Biostatistics Unit at the University of Cambridge supervised by Stephen Burgess, who graduated in 2025. He moved on to take up a position at Mass General Hospital, Boston. |
|
Zhirong Yang: Zhirong was a PhD student in the Primary Care Unit at the University of Cambridge co-supervised by Stephen Burgess, who graduated in 2020. He moved on to take up a position at Peking University, China. |
|
Jessica Rees: Jessica was a PhD student in the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge supervised by Stephen Burgess, who graduated in 2019. She moved on to take up a Trial Statistician position at the University of Edinburgh. |
|
Anna Ramond: Anna was a PhD student in the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge co-supervised by Steve, who graduated in 2018. |
|
James Staley: James was a PhD student in the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, who graduated in 2017. He was co-supervised by Steve on a project related to non-linear estimation in Mendelian randomization. He moved on to take up a Senior Research Associate position at the University of Bristol. |
MPhil Students
| Yi Liu: Yi was a MPhil student in Public Health who graduated in 2024. Her thesis project was supervised by Stephen Burgess and Jessica Barrett. Mendelian Randomization with longitudinal exposure data: simulation study and real data application | Link |
| Eva Gjermarkaj: Eva was a MPhil student in Public Health who graduated in 2022. Her thesis project was supervised by Stephen Burgess and Steven Zhao. Associations between vitamin D and autoimmune diseases: Mendelian randomization analysis | Link |
| Bowen Liu: Bowen was a research assistant in the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge and a member of the group until October 2021. He is now completing his DPhil in the Nuffield Dept of Population Health, University of Oxford. Genetically predicted type 2 diabetes mellitus liability, glycated hemoglobin and cardiovascular diseases: a wide-angled Mendelian randomization study | Link |
| Aida Seyedsalehi: Aida was a MPhil student in Epidemiology who graduated in 2021. Her thesis project was supervised by Graham Murray and Stephen Burgess. Educational attainment, structural brain reserve and Alzheimer’s disease: a Mendelian randomization analysis | Link |
| Wei-Hsuan Lee: Wendy was a MPhil student in Epidemiology who graduated in 2020. Her thesis project was supervised by Elias Allara and Stephen Burgess. Plasma cortisol and risk of atrial fibrillation: a Mendelian randomization study | Link Assessing the role of cortisol in cancer: a wide-ranged Mendelian randomisation study | Link |
| Maira Khan: Maira was a MPhil student in Epidemiology who graduated in 2020. Her thesis project was supervised by John Perry and Stephen Burgess. |
| Haruyuki Yanaoka: Haruyuki was a MPhil student in Epidemiology who graduated in 2020. His thesis project was co-supervised by Stephen Burgess. Associations between vitamin D and autoimmune diseases: Mendelian randomization analysis | link |
| Hannah Higgins: Hannah was a MPhil student in Public Health who graduated in 2019. Her thesis project was supervised by Stephen Burgess and Claudia Langenberg. Estimating the population benefits of blood pressure lowering: a wide-angled Mendelian randomization study in UK Biobank | Link |
| Ryan Chung: Ryan was a MPhil student in Epidemiology who graduated in 2019. His thesis project was supervised by Hugh Markus and Stephen Burgess. |
Previous Visitors
Visiting researchers
| Xuye Jiang: Xuye visited the group in 2025. Her visit formed part of the 3rd year of her PhD supervised at the University of Copenhagen. |
|
|
|
Julie Zhu Liduzi Jiesisibieke: Julie visited the group in 2024. Her visit formed part of the 3rd year of her PhD supervised at the University of Hong Kong. Search for common genetic variants to allow reliable Mendelian randomization investigations into ketone metabolism | link |
| Christopher Buck: Christopher visited the group in 2023. His visit formed part of a research internship building on his Masters’ thesis at Imperial College London, supervised by Verena Zuber and Kolyan Ray. |
|
Emma Guoyi Yang: Emma visited the group in 2022-23. Her visit formed part of the 3rd year of her PhD supervised at the University of Hong Kong. |
|
Claudia Coscia Requena: Claudia was a visiting student to Stephen Burgess’ group in January 2021. Her visit formed part of the fourth year of her PhD supervised by the Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Group in the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) and the Statistics School of the UCM. She is now a post-doctoral researcher with the World Health Organization. |
|
Pomme Simons: Pomme visited the group from Maastricht University in 2020 and 2023. |
|
Segun Fatumo: Segun visited the group from MRC Uganda, Entebbe in 2020. |
| María Grau Pérez: María visited the group from Institute for Biomedical Research Hospital Clinic de Valencia (INCLIVA), Valencia in 2019. |
|
|
|
Gabriele Morani: Gabriele visited the group from Università degli studi di Pavia in 2017. |
|
Tessel Galeshoot: Tessel visited the group from UMC Radboud, Nijmegen in 2015. |
Short-term interns
|
Harshika Mohan Raj: Harshika visited the group as part of a summer intern project in 2025, supervised by Janne Pott. |
| Bethan White: Bethan visited the group as part of a summer intern project in 2022, supervised by Andrew Grant. |
Ifeanyi Chukwu: Ifeanyi visited the group as part of a summer intern project in 2021, supervised by Amy Mason. |
|
MendelianRandomization v0.5.0: updates to an R package for performing Mendelian randomization analyses using summarized data | Link |
| Jiazheng Zhu: Jiazheng visited the group as part of a summer intern project in 2020, supervised by Andrew Grant. |
|
|
|
Olena Yavorska: Olena visited the group from Trinity College Dublin in 2016 on a summer internship. |