Professor Bill Newman studied Medicine at Manchester University and completed training in adult medicine before training in Clinical Genetics. He has a PhD on the Genetics of Osteoarthritis. Dr Newman moved to Toronto to undertake a two-year Fellowship where he worked on the genetic basis of common diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. He took up his post at the University of Manchester and Consultant at St Mary's Hospital in 2004.

Dr Newman's current research is focused on pharmacogenomics - defining the genetic factors that influence how patients respond to their medications. He has an interest in the use of different technologies to define disease-causing genes and has used the new technique of next generation sequencing to identify a number of new genes responsible for a range of rare inherited conditions, eg Perrault syndrome (deafness and ovarian failure) and urofacial syndrome (bladder problem).

His main clinical interest is in the use of new techniques to improve diagnosis of rare disease. He is also interested in the application of tests to improve treatment (especially in cancer), known as pharmacogenomics or precision medicine.

Dr Newman see patients with various heart problems which can be inherited, including cardiomyopathy and heart rhythm problems. He has established a Genome Clinic to use new types of genome sequencing for conditions that it was previously difficult to diagnose. This is now leading to studies to discover specific treatments for inherited disorders.

Cardiac Genetics - St Mary's Hospital, Manchester and Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

Genome clinic for rare inherited conditions - St Mary's Hospital, Manchester.

Adult onset inherited disorders - Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

British Society of Genetic Medicine – Chair (2015-17)
European Society of Human Genetics – Board member and Scientific Program Committee
American Society of Human Genetics - member

5th December 2018: Manchester Genomic Centre praised for leading the way

3rd August 2018: Manchester researchers discover BRCA1-linked mechanism

1st August 2018: Manchester to lead development of UK's first rapid genetic test