The CAPP Story

Setting up and running an international clinical trial for 18 years involves a lot of people. Some key staff like our first trial manager Pam Chapman and her successor Gail Barker have retired.  Others, like our recruiters Pascale Ives in Melbourne and Sue Werner in Dusseldorf left the study when the main grant ended in 2008.  It's difficult to give everyone credit but the key people in the CAPP1 and CAPP2 papers are listed below among the authors and the acknowledgement list. 

The core of CAPP is led by three principal investigators, Professor Sir John Burn, Professor Tim Bishop and Professor John Mathers.   John Burn started the programme and acts as Chief Investigator, responsible for the central organization of CAPP.  He is Professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University in the UK and works as a clinical genetics consultant in the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which is part of the NHS.  His other jobs include being the Genetics Lead for the UK National Institute of Health Research. He was knighted in 2010 for services to medicine and healthcare. 

Tim Bishop is Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at Leeds University, UK and heads the Cancer Research UK Genetic Epidemiology Research Unit in Leeds.  His team were responsible for the mathematical design of the CAPP studies and were responsible for handling the randomization and statistical analysis in CAPP1 and CAPP2. In CAPP3 we will involve a clinical trials unit to handle the day to day management but the statistical studies will continue to be run by the Leeds team.

John Mathers is Professor of Human Nutrition at Newcastle University and heads the Human Nutrition Research Centre.  He was responsible for the detailed design of the dietary supplement part of the CAPP1 study and the CAPP2 study and his laboratory team, led by our chief technician Julie Coaker, has handled the tissue samples we collected over the years .  Julie is still with the team and wil be running our laboratory studies to help work out why aspirin works and whether all people react to it in the same way.  John runs an extensive programme of research into the relationship between our genes and our environment.