James R. Bonham, Ph.D

Dr. James R. Bonham is the president of the International Society of Neonatal Screening (ISNS), which includes over 500 members in 80 countries.  He served as a Clinical Director at the Sheffield Children’s Hospital from 1992 until 2018, and a trustee for the Children’s Hospital Charity until 2013.  He began working for Public Health England (PHE) in 2015, where he serves as the UK National Laboratory Lead for the Newborn Screening Blood Spot Programme.  In his role as President of the ISNS, Dr. Bonham has helped impact the lives of thousands of babies and has helped to extend newborn screening programs into low and middle income countries.  In 2019, Dr. Bonham was awarded an MBE for the national impact of his services on young people with genetic metabolic diseases. 

Dr. Bonham’s interests include newborn screening for early detection of inherited metabolic diseases, with a focus on optimizing the quality and effectiveness of these tests.  In 2012, he played an integral role in the introduction of blood spot screening tests for four additional, potentially life-threatening conditions into the National Newborn Blood Spot Screening Programme in the UK.  This program is estimated to impact over 1,000 newborns yearly, and Dr. Bonham’s contribution helped bring screening for additional serious conditions into routine practice across the UK.  Dr. Bonham has also recently helped the establishment of newborn screening in developing countries as Co-Chair of the Global Task Force on Newborn Screening supported by the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and the ISNS.  This work, focused on the benefit of patients in low- and middle-income countries began in 2021.