Adrian Martineau

Adrian's primary research interest is in the effects of vitamin D on human health. His work combines laboratory investigation of the effects of vitamin D on the immune system with a series of multi-centre clinical trials and meta-analyses, investigating the potential role of vitamin D supplementation as an agent to prevent respiratory infections and non-communicable diseases.He is clinical Chief Investigator for the Vitamin D and Longevity trial (VIDAL, a NIHR-funded study investigating effects of vitamin D supplementation on all-cause mortality in UK adults aged 65-84 years) and the ViDiKids trial (a MRC-funded study investigating whether vitamin D can prevent tuberculosis infection among primary schoolchildren in Cape Town, South Africa). He sits on the NICE Public Health Advisory Committee on Vitamin D, and works clinically in the Tuberculosis Clinic at Barts Health NHS Trust.

Adrian has an active PhD programme and enquiries from prospective PhD or MD students interested in respiratory infection and / or vitamin D are welcome.

Adrian gained a B Med Sci degree in Epidemiology and Public Health from Newcastle University in 1995, and graduated from Newcastle Medical School in the following year. He then gained a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from Liverpool University before working as a Medical Officer in South Africa.

He returned to Liverpool to continue medical training in 1999, and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 2001. Adrian joined Queen Mary as a lecturer in Respiratory Medicine in 2002, and established a programme of laboratory and clinical research into the immunomodulatory actions of vitamin D in tuberculosis.

He received his PhD in 2010, and is currently conducting clinical trials of vitamin D supplementation to prevent respiratory infections and non-communicable diseases in the UK, South Africa and Mongolia. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2017.