Professor Edward Tobias
- Professor of Genetic Medicine (Medicine)
telephone:
01413549200
email:
Edward.Tobias@glasgow.ac.uk
School of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing, Academic Medical Genetics & Pathology,, Room L2/B/110, Lab Medicine Building, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow, G51 4TF
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2649-7695Biography
Prof Edward Tobias is an educator and researcher in medical genetics and genomics. He is also an (honorary) consultant clinical geneticist in the NHS and is an active invited member of several international genomics committees.
Personal qualifications: BSc (1st class Hons), MBChB, MRCP, PhD (Molecular Biology), FRCP, FHEA, FAoP (Assocn. of Physicians).
He is the recipient of the Education Award 2021 of the European Society of Human Genetics and an invited co-chair, & sub-committee lead, of the Education Committee of the global Human Genome Organisation (HUGO International).
Education
Passionate about teaching & training, locally and globally, & having previously gained Fellowship of the UK Higher Education Academy, he is lead author of international textbooks, chapters, educational websites, smartphone apps, and courses, all used worldwide.
At the University of Glasgow, he is Clinical Director of the MSc in Medical Genetics & Genomics (which has now won UK, Scottish & university awards). He is also lead for the MSc programme's practical Clinical Genomics course and lead for the university's multi-award-winning undergraduate MBChB Genetics teaching. He was joint lead of the training workstrand of the £3.4m MRC/EPSRC Glasgow Molecular Pathology Node & joint Clinical Director of the MSc in Molecular Pathology and enjoys receiving genetics and genomics questions from students, on any course, at any level.
An enthusiastic innovator and eager to both create and fully utilise new technology, he invented (together with Adam Dundas) a 3D molecular-viewer virtual reality app for the education of bio-medical students. The app was shortlisted for a UK Technology & Innovation Award. He is also a member of an (award-winning) STEM public engagement team (led by Dr Saeeda Bhatti) and he has received four personal student-awarded teaching awards. He is also a lead educator for two University of Glasgow Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and an Expert-Track MOOC on the FutureLearn online platform.
In relation to internationally-based work, as mentioned above, he is an invited co-chair, and sub-committee lead, of the Human Genome Organisation International Education Committee (led from the UK and Argentina) and an active member of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) Education Committee. He is also a working group co-lead (with Angela Peron, Italy) for the Clinical Genetics and Genomics examination of the European Union of Medical Specialists. His educational genetics and genomics website (EuroGEMS.org) has been adopted by the ESHG and by HUGO-International as their principal online education source and has already been used in over 140 countries.
In recognition of his international educational contributions, he was awarded the prestigious ESHG Education Award at their 2021 international conference.
Research
He currently carries out research (into developmental genes) involving whole-genome DNA sequencing and long-read sequencing. He is Chief Investigator of a whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing study, a co-investigator on a £6m CSO/MRC-funded WGS Scottish Genomes Partnership and a collaborator with investigators at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge and at the Francis Crick Insitute, London.
Previously, with a personal MRC Fellowship award, he undertook a PhD in the molecular biology of receptor signalling, followed by post-doctoral research in molecular cancer genetics & bioinformatics. After subsequent training in NHS Clinical Genetics, he won a GSK Senior Clinical Research Fellowship, funding his tumour suppressor gene research, publishing results in Nature Genetics.
Acknowledgement
He is enormously grateful to all of his colleagues in the university (including, in particular, the Medical Genetics & Genomics team) and in the NHS, past and present, for all of their invaluable assistance and support.
Research interests
Prof Tobias was one of the work-strand leaders (and one of the co-applicants) for the Glasgow Molecular Pathology Node (which received £3.4 million grant funding from the MRC and EPSRC). He is Chief Investigator of the ethically-approved and UK CRN-listed Genetic Investigation of Rare Disorders (exomic and whole genome sequencing) study, with funding from the Wellcome Trust for exomic sequencing and which recently benefited from further substantial funding and an extension, permitting WGS analysis on cutting-edge HiSeq X machines. As a co-investigator of the Scottish Genomes Partnership whole genome sequencing project (awarded a total of £6 million grant funding by the MRC and Scottish Executive Health Department) he aims to maximise the clinical and research benefits of next generation sequencing.
His research group has strong interests in the genetic basis of DSD conditions and he has multiple collaborators, for example at the Sanger Institute, Cambridge, and at London’s Francis Crick Institute. Please note that the Publications and Grants pages are currently being updated.
Previously, he was awarded an MRC Training Fellowship and won a prestigious 6-year £400,000 GlaxoSmithKline Senior Clinical Fellowship. Subsequent molecular genetic work identifying a new candidate tumour suppressor gene, was graded "Excellent/clearly outstanding" by the Scientific Committee of the Chief Scientist Office. In addition, molecular genetic work in elucidating the parent-of-origin effect in SDHD-related tumourigenesis led to the award of a prize to Prof Tobias from the British Society of Human Genetics. Several other projects have led to the award of prizes to students he has supervised.
Grants
Grants and Awards listed are those received whilst working with the University of Glasgow.
- Frequency of disorders of sex development and novel genetic associations in children with neurodevelopmental disorders
Glasgow Children`s Hospital Charity
2016 - 2018
- ISSF Toward universally feasible molecular diagnostics in kidney transplantation through development of novel transcriptomic approaches making use of routine diagnostic tissue
Wellcome Trust
2016 - 2018
- The Scottish Genomes Partnership
Chief Scientist Office
2016 - 2019
- Glasgow Molecular Pathology (GMP) Node
Medical Research Council
2015 - 2019
- Exome Sequencing for the Genetic Diagnosis of Rare Diseases: Fostering a New Working Relationship between the NHS, the University of Glasgow and Glasgow Polyomics (ISSF)
Wellcome Trust
2013 - 2015
- Understanding variability in phenotype, and assessing the risk of serious cardiac events, in women and children with long QT syndrome.
Glasgow Children`s Hospital Charity
2013 - 2015
- Molecular genetic investigation of familial joint instability
Yorkhill Children's Foundation
2007 - 2015
- Molecular genetic analysis of the putative tumour suppressor gene,TES,in human breast cancer
Tenovus Scotland
2006 - 2012
- Identification of high-penetrance gene alterations that predispose to familial melanoma in Scottish patients
Scottish Executive Health Department
2006 - 2008
Teaching
Prof Tobias enjoys teaching and strives to deliver the most up-to-date, interactive and enjoyable teaching to students of all levels, at the university and beyond.
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEES - INVITED MEMBERSHIP
He is an invited member of the Education Committee of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) and co-chair (of the Education Committee of the international Human Genome Organisation (HUGO International). He is a working-group co-lead and steering committee member for the ECMGG professional examination of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS). In addition, international guidelines that he created with other members of a genomic education reporting-standards global committee, led from Melbourne, have been published in Genetics in Medicine.
AWARDS
Interactive and innovative teaching by Prof Tobias led to him receiving “Best College Teacher Awards” in two consecutive years from the Student Representative Council (SRC), to his personal Teaching Excellence Award from the Principal of the University of Glasgow and to an SRC award for “Best Subject Area” (Medical Genetics) taught at the university.
In addition, in 2014, he and his MSc Medical Genetics teaching colleagues won the 2014 UK Prospects Postgraduate Teaching Team Award and, in 2017, a Herald Scotland Higher Education award, as well as University of Glasgow College-level and University-level Teaching Excellence Awards.
At the undergraduate level, he was also a member (as lead for Genetics) of the Year 3 MBChB teaching team that, in 2017, won a Teaching Excellence Award. He is a member of a 2017-award-winning STEM public engagement team and was honoured to receive another award, from a class of 300 final-year medical students (in May 2018).
He co-created a 3D molecule viewer virtual reality app (compatible with the international Protein Data Bank) for the education of bio-medical students, a finalist in the Technology & Innovation category of the UK Times Higher Education Awards 2020.
He is the recipient of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) Education Award 2021. Please see Additional Information for a list showing other teaching awards received (although it is currently being updated).
INTERNATIONAL TEXTBOOKS & CHAPTERS
Prof Tobias is the lead author of a large medical genetics textbook (Essential Medical Genetics 6th edition; 332 pages) that is in use at Cambridge University and in many countries in Europe, Asia, Australasia and North America. It is currently being translated into five foreign languages. He is also the lead author of another textbook on medical genetics, for specialists, entitled: Medical Genetics for the MRCOG and Beyond, 2nd edition.
He has also published many book chapters including an extensive chapter on the human genome (in the international Handbook of Pharmacogenomics and Stratified Medicine, Elsevier), a chapter on next generation sequencing (Karger), a chapter on inherited cancer syndromes (Springer) and a 60-page chapter on the molecular biology of cancer in an international medical genetics reference book (Principles & Practice of Medical Genetics, Elsevier).
EDUCATIONAL APPS USED WORLDWIDE
He designed two educational Clinical Genomics apps (for smartphones and tablets) that he has made freely available via the Apple and Android Play Stores and which are now in use in approximately 60 countries worldwide. These apps have been endorsed by clinical and laboratory professionals in many countries as well as by international specialist organisations such as the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG). The development process of the apps has been published in the open-access journal Applied & Translational Genomics in an invited paper and recently cited as a key reference in a recent article from Oxford and Nairobi on the value of mobile technology for medical education in low-income countries. The apps were shortlisted in the Herald Higher Education Awards for Scotland, in the Innovation Technology Excellence Award category and currently being expanded.
He has published three further educational apps: Inheritance Quiz apps A, B and C, for undergraduate students, on both App Stores. More recently, as mentioned above, the 3D Molecule Viewer virtual reality app for the education of bio-medical students, that he co-created, was a finalist for the UK Technology & Innovation Times Higher Education Award 2020. Students’ comments included: “highly engaging”, “hugely enjoyable and informative” and “a game-changer in the future of biology teaching”.
EDUCATIONAL WEBSITE
He has recently created an educational genetics & genomics website that is freely accessible at www.EuroGEMS.org which has already provided resource guidance to thousands of visitors from over 100 countries. The website was fully endorsed by the ESHG Executive and Board and has since been adopted by the ESHG as their principal online education source. It has already been professionally translated into Spanish, Portuguese and French at the request of the ESHG, and continues to be updated.
REVIEWING & EXTERNAL EXAMINING
He has reviewed documents for many publishers and research grant providers e.g. Elsevier Press, British Medical Journal, Nature.com, Oxford University Press, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. He has served as an Educational Advisor for Southampton University and an external examiner and reviewer for postgraduate medical genetics & genomics at Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Malta universities. He is currently external examiner for the PGCert in Clinical Bioinformatics at the University of Manchester.
GENETICS & GENOMICS TEACHING in GLASGOW & BEYOND
At the University of Glasgow, he is the lead for the undergraduate curriculum in medical genetics for MBChB and has co-written the new genetics curriculum for Scotland. For that course, he created and delivered a new series of interactive lectures and case-based learning sessions, leading to the multiple awards mentioned above. Please also see Additional Information for award details.
Prof Tobias lectures on several other undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of Glasgow. In particular, he is involved, as Clinical Director, in running the internationally renowned and award-winning MSc in Medical Genetics & Genomics course, which attracts a large number of students from all over the world. For that MSc and others, he runs a relatively new 5-week Clinical Genomics and practical bioinformatics course (with 40-60 students). He is also Clinical Director of the GCRB-accredited MSc in Genetic & Genomic Counselling (currently paused) and was joint Clinical Director of the MSc in Molecular Pathology.
He is also lead educator for two new University of Glasgow Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Genomic Medicine: Harnessing the Power of the Human Genome and Understanding Genetic Disorders: How DNA Influences Health and an educator on the Cancer in the 21st Century: The Genomic Revolution MOOC, teaching many thousands of students, in over 100 countries, worldwide.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
As mentioned previously, Prof Tobias is enormously grateful to all of his colleagues in the university and in the NHS, past and present, for all of their invaluable assistance.
Professional activities & recognition
Prizes, awards & distinctions
- 2018: Medical student teaching award (Final year GU students)
- 2017: Finalist in the Innovation Technology Excellence award category (Clinical Genomics Apps for Smartphones and Tablets: Edward & Adam Tobias) (Herald Higher Education Awards for Scotland)
- 2017: Winning entry in the Enhancing Student Learning category (Closing the Feedback Loop: Leah Marks, Maria Jackson & Edward Tobias) (Herald Higher Education Awards for Scotland)
- 2017: Poster presentation prize awarded to one of Prof Tobias's post-graduate research students, Dr Gabriella Gazdagh. Co-authors: R McGowan, SF Ahmed, DDD study & ES Tobias (Biotexcel NGS 2017 conference)
- 2017: Team MVLS Teaching Excellence Award (won by the MBChB Year 3 Teaching Team; personal involvement: Lead for Genetics) (College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences)
- 2017: Individual Finalist in SRC Student Teaching Award category: Best College Teacher in MVLS (Student Representative Council, University of Glasgow)
- 2017: Individual Finalist: SRC Student Teaching Award - Best Online Learning Experience (Student Representative Council, University of Glasgow)
- 2016: Team Finalist (University of Glasgow Medical Genetics Teaching Team) (Herald Higher Education Awards for Scotland)
- 2016: Individual Finalist: SRC Student Teaching Award in the category of Outstanding Contribution to Teaching (Student Representative Council, University of Glasgow)
- 2015: Individual Finalist: in SRC Student Teaching Award in the category of Outstanding Contribution to Teaching (Student Representative Council, University of Glasgow)
- 2014: Best Post-graduate Teaching Team (MSc Medical Genetics), Award winners - Manchester (Prospects UK)
- 2014: Winner of SRC Student Teaching Award for "Best College Teacher, MVLS" (Student Representative Council, University of Glasgow)
- 2014: Teaching Excellence Award (from the University Principal; awarded to the MSc Medical Genetics teaching team members) (University of Glasgow)
- 2014: Teaching Excellence Award to the MSc Medical Genetics Teaching Team (College of MVLS)
- 2013: Post-graduate Teaching Team (MSc Medical Genetics), Finalists Award - Manchester (Prospects UK)
- 2013: Research prize to PhD student, Catriona Brown, for her analysis and presentation regarding cardiac causes of sudden death. (Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society of Glasgow)
- 2013: SRC Student Teaching Awards: winner of award for Best College Teacher, MVLS, following detailed nominations from approximately 40 students. (Student Representative Council, University of Glasgow)
- 2012: Teaching Excellence Award, for a Career Distinguished by a Significant and Sustained Commitment to Excellence (University of Glasgow)
- 2012: SRC Student Teaching Award for Best Teacher MVLS (shortlisted) following detailed nominations from approximately 20 students. (Student Representative Council, University of Glasgow)
- 2012: Winner of SRC StudentTeaching Award for Best Subject Area - Medical Genetics. (Student Representative Council, University of Glasgow)
- 2011: Research prize for work on the elucidation of the molecular genetic basis of the SDHD-related parent of origin effect. Annual conference. University of Warwick. (British Society for Human Genetics)
- 2009: Grading of melanoma gene work as Excellent/clearly outstanding by the Chief Scientist Office Scientific Committee. (Scottish Executive Health Department)
- 2008: Prize to a postgraduate student for the analysis of BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants by computational methods. (Scottish Breast Cancer Network Dundee)
- 2007: Prize awarded for molecular genetic work on the role of the TES gene in breast cancer, by another student in Dr Tobias laboratory. (UK Women's Federation)
Research fellowships
- 2012: Higher Education Academy
Professional & learned societies
- 2018: Invited member, European Board of Medical Genetics
- 2017: Invited to join (as the sole UK member) the Education Committee of the ESHG, with responsibilty for Educational Materials for that internationally renowned society, European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG)
- 2016: representative for Glasgow University on the ScotGEN Steering Committee, Scottish Genetics Education Network (ScotGEN)
- 2015: Invited to join the COST working group - Action BM1303 (DSDnet), planning pan-European online collaboration regarding clinical research-related NGS results, European Cooperation in Science & Technology (COST)
- 2012: Elected as Member, Association of Physicians of Great Britain & Ireland
- 2004: Elected Fellow, Royal College of Physicians
Supplementary
- External examiner and advisor for postgraduate programmes at the Universities of Edinburgh, Manchester and Southampton - and for the new European Diploma examination in Medical Genetics and Genomics (Milan 2018, Gothenburg 2019 & Berlin 2020).
