Christopher Byrne trained as a physician and clinical scientist at Cardiff, Cambridge and Stanford Universities. After Medical Research Council clinical science fellowships he was appointed Professor of Endocrinology & Metabolism at Southampton University Hospitals Trust, UK. He is an academic diabetologist with clinical and molecular research interests in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome, and the mechanisms linking metabolic syndrome with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. His publications span a range of disciplines from epidemiological to gene expression studies.

Sarah Wild trained in medicine in London and Cambridge and subsequently received training in epidemiology at Stanford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is currently senior lecturer in epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests include the global burden of diabetes and metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular epidemiology.