Dr Zhengming Chen Reader in Epidemiology at the University of Oxford. Dr Chen qualified in medicine in Shanghai in 1983, joining the Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) in 1987. He gained his DPhil from Oxford in 1993. He is the director of CTSU's China programme, responsible for several large projects in China, including trials of treatment for vascular diseases, cancer and observational epidemiological studies of the causes of chronic diseases. He is also the co-executive director of the Fuwai-Oxford Collaborative Centre for Cardiovascular Health and an honorary Professor at Peking Union Medical College. Dr Chen is principal investigator of COMMIT/CCS-2.

Dr Yiping Chen Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. Dr Chen qualified in medicine in Shanghai in 1985, gained her DPhil in Oxford in 1993 and joined the CTSU in 1998. She is also co-associate director of the Fuwai-Oxford Collaborative Centre for Cardiovascular Health, and has been clinical co-ordinator of COMMIT/CCS-2 at the Oxford co-ordinating centre since the beginning of the trial.

Professor Rory Collins British Heart Foundation Professor of Medicine & Epidemiology at the University of Oxford. In 1981, Professor Collins joined the CTSU, and became its co-director with Professor Sir Richard Peto in 1986. Professor Collins's work has been in the establishment of large-scale randomised trials of the treatment of heart disease, other vascular disease and cancer. He has also been closely involved in developing approaches to combining results from related trials ('meta-analyses') that allow the more reliable assessment of treatment effects. Professor Collins is co-director of the Fuwai-Oxford Collaborative Centre for Cardiovascular Health, honorary Professor at Peking Union Medical College, and co-chair of the International Steering Committee of COMMIT/CCS-2.

Dr Lixin Jiang Associate Professor in Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Dr Jiang qualified in medicine in Jiangsu in 1989 and gained her MSc at Fuwai Hospital in 1995. She co-ordinated the INTER-HEART study of the causes of heart attacks in China, is co-associate director of the Fuwai-Oxford Collaborative Centre for Cardiovascular Health, and has been clinical co-ordinator of COMMIT/CCS-2 at the Beijing co-ordinating centre since the beginning of the trial.

Professor Lisheng Liu Professor of Medicine in Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences since 1983. Professor Liu retired from Fuwai in 2000, but continued as the director of the Clinical Trials and Research Centre, Chinese Hypertension League. She has been president of the Chinese Hypertension League since 1989, and is vice-president of the World Hypertension League. She has also been co-chair of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Global Health Forum Cardiovascular Disease Initiative in Developing Countries (World Health Organization) since 1999. Professor Liu is co-chair of the International Steering Committee of COMMIT/CCS-2.

Dr Hongchao Pan Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellow. Dr Pan has been working in the CTSU for ten years as a senior clinical data analyst and computer programmer. During this time he has been involved in the design, data management and analysis of several large-scale randomised clinical trials and epidemiological studies in vascular disease and cancer. He has co-authored several clinical and epidemiological research papers published in the Lancet, British Medical Journal, and Stroke, and a monograph on the geographic study of mortality, biochemistry, diet and lifestyle in rural China. Dr Pan is joint statistician with Professor Richard Peto on COMMIT/CCS-2.

Professor Sir Richard Peto Professor of Medical Statistics & Epidemiology at the University of Oxford. In 1975, Professor Peto set up the CTSU of which he and Rory Collins are now co-directors. His work has included studies of the causes of cancer in general, and of the effects of smoking in particular, and the establishment of large-scale randomised trials of the treatment of heart disease, stroke, cancer and a variety of other diseases. He has been instrumental in introducing combined 'meta-analyses' of results from related trials that achieve uniquely reliable assessment of treatment effects. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1989, and was knighted (for services to epidemiology and to cancer prevention) in 1999. Professor Peto is joint statistician with Dr Hongchao Pan on COMMIT/CCS-2.

Professor Peter Sleight Consultant physician/cardiologist in Oxford since 1964. Professor Sleight retired from the British Heart Foundation Field Marshall Alexander Chair of Vascular Medicine in 1994, but continues as an honorary Consultant at the John Radcliffe Hospital. He is chair of the Steering Committees of the ISIS trials and (with T. Meade) of the HPS and SEARCH studies, and is co-chair of the HOPE study group (with S. Yusuf and C. Anderson). He is immediate Past President of the World Hypertension League and serves on data monitoring committees for several clinical trials. With colleagues at the University of Padua, his recent research has been on the prognostic value of measures of heart rate variability and the pathophysiological processes underlying changes in patients prone to vascular disease. Professor Sleight has been awarded the Galen Medal of the Society of Apothecaries for his work in circulatory physiology and trials, the Mackenzie medal of the British Cardiac Society, and the International Aspirin Foundation Senior Award (with C. Baigent, R .Collins and R. Peto).

Professor Jingxiang Xie Professor of Cardiology in Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Professor Xie studied in Belgium from 1988 to 1991 and is a member of the World Hypertension League. She co-ordinated the major 'CAST' stroke trial in China, and has been clinical co-ordinator of COMMIT/CCS-2 at the Beijing co-ordinating centre since the beginning of the trial.