DrBob Boyle, MB ChB, PhD

Dr Boyle is an expert in childhood allergic conditions, especially the development of food allergy and eczema in infants.

Current Research Projects

Dr Boyle's current research focuses on two areas. First, the primary prevention of eczema and food allergy. Through clinical trial and evidence synthesis projects, he is exploring the possibility that eczema and food allergy could be prevented by improving infant skin care during the first months of life. Dr Boyle led food allergy assessment in the UK BEEP trial of daily moisturiser for preventing eczema. He leads a living, individual participant data, Cochrane systematic review of infant skin care trials for preventing eczema and food allergy, and he co-led the BABYBATHE feasibility trial. These studies were all funded by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research. The second area of research aims to characterise and ultimately to dispel scientific misinformation generated by the infant formula industry. This work is currently focused on cow’s milk allergy overdiagnosis, an issue which affects about 1 in 10 infants in the UK.

Previous Research and Impact

Dr Boyle's research has influenced infant feeding guidelines and practice worldwide. His team’s UK Food Standards Agency funded evidence synthesis showed that early introduction of egg and peanut probably reduces risk of allergy to these foods. This contributed to new international recommendations for earlier introduction of common allergenic foods such as peanut and egg in the infant diet. The guideline changes have in turn been associated with changes in infant feeding practice and, in some studies, reduced food allergy incidence. His team’s research finding that feeding infants formula milk based on hydrolysed protein probably doesn’t change their risk for developing eczema or allergies has also changed guidelines internationally. This triggered the withdrawal of previous guideline recommendations to use hydrolysed formula, and the research was used in regulatory and legal action against the infant formula industry. Dr Boyle’s team has also characterised the misleading nature of infant formula clinical trial outcomes and health/nutrition claims for formula. This research helped to trigger a referral to the UK Competition and Marketing Authority, who subsequently published recommendations to improve the information provided to people who use infant formula, which the UK government has committed to act on.

Training and Expertise

Dr Boyle trained in Paediatrics at Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, and then trained in Allergy and Immunology at the Royal Children's Hospital and Melbourne University, Australia. Here, he undertook a PhD investigating the prevention and treatment of eczema. He was appointed to Imperial College London as NIHR Clinical Lecturer in 2007, Clinical Senior Lecturer in 2009, Director of the Paediatric Research Unit/ Children’s Clinical Research Facility in 2013 and Clinical Reader in 2017. Dr Boyle’s methodological expertise is in the design, conduct, reporting and synthesis of clinical trials.

External Appointments

Dr Boyle has been Deputy or Joint Coordinating Editor of the Cochrane Skin Group since 2017 and is a member of Cochrane's Editorial Board. He has been Joint Editor in Chief of the official UK allergy journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy since 2021, overseeing a doubling in submissions and publications and a rise in impact factor from 4.2 to 7.6. He is a member of two committees which provide advice to UK Department of Health and Social Care - the UK Nutrition and Health Claims Committee and the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition. He has provided consultancy to the World Health Organization and to the Norwegian Directorate of Health regarding infant and young child feeding issues. Dr Boyle has acted as an International Scientific Advisory Board member for several research consortia, most recently the German HELICAP programme on early childhood allergy prevention and the Australian NACE programme on advancing allergy research and care.

Advocacy work

Dr Boyle regularly advises charities and other non-profit groups regarding infant and young child feeding issues. He is a Director of Baby Milk Action, a member of the UK Baby Feedlng Law Group and a professional adviser for La Leche League. He is co-chair of a working group convened by the World Health Organization called HASFF, which supports healthcare professional associations to develop policies against accepting sposorship from foromula companies and other companies that market foods for infants and young children,. Dr Boyle attends the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Infant Feeding and has made representation at World Health Assembly and Codex meetings on behalf of professional or charitable organisations. Dr Boyle has contributed as an expert to regulatory and legal action against the infant formula industry, including two US class actions. Dr Boyle has taken part in two investigative documentaries regarding the scientific and marketing practices of the formula industry.

Teaching

Dr Boyle set up and ran the Follow my Footsteps course for 15 years, where undergraduate medical students at Imperial College London followed a family through pregnancy and the first 3 years of childhood to learn about early child development and opportunities for intervention. Dr Boyle helped set up the Imperial College London Allergy MSc programme and acted as Deputy Director or Director of the programme for 15 years. He was given the Imperial College London President’s award for excellence in undergraduate teaching in 2015 and continues to teach on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Imperial and other universities. Dr Boyle has supervised over 60 BSc, MSc or MPH projects and 10 MD, PhD and postdoctoral fellowships to completion.