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Julia Townson

Julia Townson

Principal Research Fellow

School of Medicine

Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I am a Principal Research Fellow in the Centre for Trials Research, College of Biomedical and Life Sciences, Cardiff University. I am the study lead for trials involving Women's Health, and Children and Young People, within the Population Health division in the Centre for Trials Research, with the overall aim to improve health and well-being, and to reduce health inequalities. I conduct and lead research relating to children and young people with Type 1 diabetes, namely to improve outcomes prior to diagnosis.

I have extensive knowledge and experience in trial methodology, research governance and patient and public involvement (PPI) in research.

Publication

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2011

Articles

Conferences

Monographs

Research

 

Research interests

  • Population Health
  • Type 1 diabetes in childhood
  • Trial Methodology
  • Obstetrics
  • School based research

Grants

2024

  • Diabetes UK - Establishing an Islet Autoantibody Positive Registry for children and adults in the UK: the UK-Islet Antibody registry (Co-I, 01/03/24 - 28/02/27) £640K
  • JDRF - Australia - T1D-P-ATG: An adaptive platform study of the addition of ATG to verapamil for beta cell preservation (Co-I, 01/01/24 - 31/12/26) £1.6M

2023

  • Helmsley Trust - T1D-P-VG: An adaptive platform study of the addition of golimumab to verapamil for beta cell preservation (Co-I, 01/12/23 - 30/11/26) £2.1M
  • NIHR HSDR – Clinical and cost-effectiveness of a maternity quality improvement programme to reduce excess bleeding and need for transfusion after childbirth: the Obstetric Bleeding Study UK (OBS UK) Stepped Wedge Cluster Randomised Trial (Co-I, 01/04/2023 – 31/12/2026) £3.4M
  •      NIHR HTA - Diagnostic accuracy of handheld ultrasound at 36 weeks of gestation to determine fetal presentation – SONO-BREECH (Co-I, 01/05/2023 – 31/08/2025) £2.2M

2022

  •      JDRF - T1D-Plus: an adaptive platform clinical trial for combined beta cell preservation therapy. (Co-I, 01/09/2022 – 31/08/2025) £2.1M
  •       NIHR PDG - Screening for pre-clinical Type 1 diabetes to prevent hospital admission and acute illness at diagnosis (“T1Early programme”): determining the evidence for benefit, acceptability and elements relevant to cost evaluation. (Co-I, 01/10/2022 – 31/12/2023) £150K
  •     HDR UK - Addressing high priority methodological questions for routinely-collected healthcare data and trials – PRIMORANT. (Co-I, 01/06/2022 – 31/03/2023) £120K·    

2021

  • Cancer Research Wales - Targeted Intensive Community-based campaign To Optimise Cancer awareness): feasibility of a symptom awareness campaign to support the Multidisciplinary/Rapid Diagnostic Centre referral pathway in a socioeconomically deprived area (TIC-TOC) - £391K

2020

  • UKRI COVID-19 rapid response call - Covid-19 Cancer Attitudes And Behaviour Study (CABs) - (Co-Investigator and CTR study lead), £697K
  • UKRI/MRC COVID-19 rapid response call – A global registry of women affected by COVID-19 in pregnancy, understanding natural history to guide treatment and prevention (PAN-COVID) Principal Investigator and CTR study lead), £300K

2019

  • NIHR HTA - Perinatal and two year neurodevelopmental outcome in late preterm fetal compromise: the TRUFFLE 2Randomised Trial (Principal Investigator and CTR study lead), £2.8M
  • NIHR PHR - A multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of KiVa to reduce bullying in primary schools: The UK KiVa Trial (Principal Investigator and CTR study lead), £1.8M
  • NIHR PHR - Optimisation, feasibility testing and a pilot randomised trial of SaFE: a sexual health and healthy relationships intervention for Further Education (Co-Investigator), £640K
  • Diabetes UK - Developing a predictive Tool using data linkage and machine learning, to promote Earlier Diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes in childhood for use in primary care – the TED study (Principal Investigator and CTR study lead), £105K
  • ICO Grants Programme - Developing scalable training for UK researchers in the use of routine public sector data informed by public and professional stakeholders (Co-Investigator), £99K

2018

  • MRC DPFS – HIFU/TTTS: A Non-invasive Ultrasound-guided High Intensity Focused Ultrasound system for placental and fetal vascular ablation in women with Twin Twin Transfusion Syndrome - Phase 1 study (Principal Investigator and CTR study lead), £2.2M
  • NIHR PHR - A multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a school-based peer-led drug prevention intervention (The FRANK friends study) (Co-Investigator) £1.5M
  • Health and Care Research Wales (Welsh Govn) – HealthWise Wales: A national longitudinal population study of health behaviours, outcomes and wider social and environmental determinants (Co-Investigator and CTR study lead), £750K

2017

  • Yorkshire Cancer Research - ABACUS: RCT of an online health check to raise awareness of the symptoms of cancer (Co-Investigator and CTR study lead), £621K

2015

  • Novo Nordisk Foundation - Investigating the prodrome of type 1 diabetes in childhood as it presents to Primary Care to predict earlier diagnosis and reduce ketoacidosis at presentation, using pseudoanonymised linked Primary and Secondary Care data (Principal Investigator and CTR study lead), £12K
  • MRC Public Health Intervention Development Scheme - SaFE study; Safe sexual health in Further Education (Co-Investigator), £131K

2014

  • NISCHR RfPPB: Early Detection of type 1 Diabetes in Youth: the EDDY feasibility study (Principal Investigator and CTR study lead) £189K
  • NIHR PHR: An exploratory trial of a multi-level smoking prevention intervention targeting 16-18 year-olds in further education settings (FILTER) (Co-Investigator), £328K
  • NAEDI: Development and pilot evaluation of the Tenovus health check: a targeted cancer awareness intervention for people from deprived communities (Co-Investigator), £287K

Teaching

I am currently a tutor on the C21 epidemiology module for medical students and also teach on the intercalated BSc course.

Biography

2020 PhD -Evaluating the prodrome to diagnosis and the effect of setting in the early management of Type 1 diabetes in childhood (School of Medicine, Cardiff University)

1995 BA - Health Promotion and Social Policy, Bangor University (First Class, Joint Honours)

Career

2023 - present: Principal Research Fellow, Centre for Trials Research

2020 - 2023: Senior Research Fellow/Senior Trial Manager, Centre for Trials Research

2014 - 2020: Research Fellow/Senior Trial Manager, SEWTU, Centre for Trials Research

2012 - 2014: Acting Research Fellow/Senior Trial Manager, SEWTU, Centre for Trials Research (Maternity cover)

2009 - 2012: Research Associate/Trial Manager, SEWTU

1999 - 2009: Research Associate, Dept of Surgery, School of Medicine, Cardiff University

1996 - 1999: Research Associate, Dept of Cardiology, School of Medicine, Cardiff University

Supervisions

I am interested in supervising PhD students