John Henderson

Abstract

Paediatrician and expert on asthma and child and infant respiratory systems. Born in Renfrew, UK, on Feb 11, 1958, he died of pancreatic cancer in Bristol, UK, on July 24, 2019, aged 61 years. In 2016, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) was in need of a caretaker leader. As part of his research into the epidemiology of asthma and allergy in children, John Henderson had been working with the 14 500-family birth cohort study, based at the University of Bristol, UK, since 1997. Using ALSPAC data, “he dissected these different patterns of wheeze from this blunderbuss diagnosis of asthma”, said his research collaborator Adnan Custovic, Professor of Paediatric Allergy at Imperial College London. “That led to the really important understanding that different subtypes have different risk factors. Then it is clear that they need different types of treatment”, Custovic explained. Despite the pressures of his own research, Henderson volunteered to temporarily lead ALSPAC, forming a new board and approach to the management of the study. Even after Nicholas Timpson, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Bristol, became principal investigator of ALSPAC in 2017, Henderson continued to act “as a sounding board. Offering advice, making sure we're doing okay”, Timpson said. That was typical of Henderson, who worked simultaneously as a researcher, clinician, and administrator while still finding time to advise his colleagues and mentor new researchers. “He did literally dozens of things and all of incredible quality and all of a magnitude that can change many people's experiences”, Timpson said. Henderson attended medical school at the University of Manchester in the UK and, after qualifying as a doctor in 1981, took on research fellowships at the University of Bristol and the University of Western Australia in Perth, Australia. He completed his MD at the University of Manchester in 1991 before returning to Bristol as a consultant paediatrician at Southmead Hospital 2 years later. In 1995, he joined the University of Bristol as a Consultant Senior Lecturer in Child Health. He would eventually rise to become a Professor in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, even as he continued his clinical work that focused on respiratory medicine in children. “He was making sure that his patients get the most up-to-date, most-effective treatment”, Custovic said. “He was a really sought-after clinician.” On the research front, Henderson's early efforts focused on understanding the physiology of the respiratory system in children and infants. He later shifted his focus to asthma, asking “can we move away from one-size-fits-all treatment into fundamentally different approaches”, Custovic explained. “This was the first time we started moving away from standard epidemiology and observation toward cutting-edge mathematical and statistical techniques.” “He was very curious”, said Raquel Granell, Research Statistician at the University of Bristol, who co-published many papers with Henderson. “He loved his work. He had a brilliant mind, both as a clinician and a scientist, and an understanding of epidemiology and statistical methods. I think it was the perfect combination.” As the Director of the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research, Aziz Sheikh worked with Henderson and said his colleagues valued collaborating with him as much for the insights and diligence he brought to his research as for his personality. “He didn't have much of an ego”, said Sheikh, who is a Professor of Primary Care Research and Development and the Director of the Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh. “He was doing good science and science that benefits kids and their families.” As his career advanced, Henderson was eager to help younger researchers, including Luke Daines, now a general practitioner and CSO Clinical Academic Fellow at the University of Edinburgh's Usher Institute, who first met Henderson when he was looking for a dataset for a PhD fellowship. Henderson helped facilitate his access to ALSPAC. “He was willing to go out of his way to help me”, Daines said. Henderson's leadership skills meant he was tapped to assist with overhauling the University of Bristol's medical curriculum after a biomedical review in 2014. “He took on the massive task of setting up the curriculum for the entire medical degree”, Timpson said. “And it has changed the student atmosphere and the student response.” The first graduates under the new curriculum will finish their studies in 2022. “He was an outstanding paediatrician, but also an extraordinary clinical scientist”, Custovic said. Henderson is survived by his wife, Nicky, and sons, Finn and Ali.