The Gorlin Syndrome Group is grateful to the team of medical advisors who give up their time freely to ensure the relevance and accuracy of website content. We are extremely privileged and honoured to have such an experienced medical team on board.
Current medical advisors:
Professor Gareth Evans was trained at Saint Mary’s Hospital Medical School London and initially specialised in paediatrics before training in Genetics at Saint Mary’s Hospital Manchester.
He has established a national and international reputation in clinical and research aspects of cancer genetics, particularly in neurofibromatosis and breast cancer. He has developed a clinical service for cancer genetics in the North West region, which is nationally regarded. He is an important opinion leader nationally through membership of committees and is chairman of the NICE Familial Breast Cancer Guideline Development Group. He lectures throughout the UK and internationally on hereditary breast cancer and cancer syndromes.
Professor Evans is a member of a specialist skin cancer multi disciplinary team in Manchester which offers regular clinics to Gorlin syndrome patients.
Dr John Lear is Consultant Dermatologist at BMI The Alexandra Hospital and the NHS. His main interest is in the diagnosis and management of skin cancer and precancerous lesions and the non-surgical management of these conditions. Having qualified in medicine in 1991 at Leicester University, Dr Lear underwent general medical training in Leicester, following which he undertook his dermatological training in the Midlands and the South West. He has published numerous papers on the genetics, epidemiology and therapy of skin cancer.
Dr Kai Ren Ong is a clinical geneticist at the department of Clinical Genetics, Birmingham Wonen’s NHS Foundation Trust, with a specialist interest in cancer genetics and Gorlin syndrome. She runs a monthly Gorlin syndrome clinic at the Birmingham Women’s Hospital and is the clinical lead for the West Midlands Regional Genetics Service and also cancer genetics lead. She trained at Manchester and Cambrdge Universities, gaining an intercalated BSc from Manchester and her medical degrees from Cambridge. She went on to train in East Anglia, London and Birmingham in junior medical posts, then trained in clinical genetics in Birmingham. During her training she spent two years working at the Christie Hospital in a research post, culminating in the award of of her MD degree from Manchester University, which looked at the effects of calorie restriction on the human breast, and the potential anti-cancer effects that this may have. She took up her consultant post in Birmingham in 2008. She spent one year as a locum geneticist working in the central and southern areas of New Zealand in 2011.
Kai Ren enjoys rock climbing, swimming, cycling and running and it trying to become a triathlete! She play the timpani in a local West Midlands orchestra, the Eroica Camerata.
Previous Medical Advisors
Professor Peter Farndon CBE leads the team at the National Genetics and Education Development as the Centre’s director, drawing on long standing interest and experience in genetic education. He holds an MSc in medical education and is a member of the Education Committee of the European Society of Human Genetics. He has been involved with the practical application of genetics for patients for over 30 years, recently retiring as a Consultant Clinical Geneticist. He gained an MD for research in Gorlin syndrome, a condition which predisposes to skin cancer.
He was founding chairman of the Joint Committe on Medical Genetics, and of the UK Genetic Testing Network. He has held posts as an officer in the Clinical Genetics Society, British Society for Human Genetics and European Society of Human Genetics, where he was immediate past-chairman of the educaton committee. He was an advisor for the genetics white paper, and a member of the Human Genomics Strategy Group. He was awarded a CBE for services to medicine in 2011.
