John Newell-Price trained in medicine at the University of Cambridge and then the Royal London Hospital. He did his specialist training in endocrinology at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, where he was an MRC Training Fellow from 1995-1998. He was appointed Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Physician at the University of Sheffield in 2000.

The focus of both his clinical and basic research is glucocorticoids. His group has identified important aspects of epigenetic regulation of proopiomelanocortin, the key regulator of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and now is using this information to design strategies to modify over-expression in conditions of excess hormone secretion, such as Cushing's disease.

The clinical research programme has been investigating means of inhibiting excess ACTH in man and improving cortisol replacement in adrenally insufficient patients. This has led to the testing of Chronocort, a new and modified-release form of hydrocortisone, in Phase I studies, which has proven to replicate the normal circadian rhythm of cortisol.

Other work focuses on the diagnostic and management strategies for patients with Cushing's syndrome, and those also for patients with neuroendocrine tumours.

In the Healthcare Trust, John chairs the Pituitary and Neuroendocrine Tumour Multidisciplinary Teams.