Principal investigators

Maria Chiara Arno (Chiara) is a Birmingham Fellow, working across the School of Chemistry and the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences.

With a background in polymer chemistry and nanoparticle design, Dr Arno’s research interests span across a diverse range of disciplines, including Polymer Chemistry, Materials Science, and Life Sciences. Her current research is focussed on the ...

Dr Roland Arnold is a group leader in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences and joined the Institute in 2017 to build up a research group dedicated to bioinformatics for cancer and diseases.

He is interested in developing and applying methods that help us to bridge the gap between genomic alterations, especially in cancer, and cellular phenotypes by novel data analysis methods and ...

I am Professor of Colorectal Surgery at University of Birmingham and Honorary Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at University Hospitals Birmingham. I am section lead for surgery, deputy director of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit and clinical lead for the D3B [Drugs, Devices, Diagnostics & Biomarkers] clinical trials team at the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of ...

Paul Badenhorst is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences.

Paul’s field of expertise is in Epigenetics and Development. Paul uses both the Drosophila model system and human cells to investigate how chromatin modifying complexes regulate gene expression to control developmental pathways. He has received major grant funding from Cancer Research UK, the ...

Timothy Barrett is Leonard Parsons Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. He is an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes and Managing Director for the NIHR Wellcome Clinical Research Facility (children) at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Timothy is also the Director of the Centre for ...

(For clinical referrals please use this address:  Department of Colorectal Surgery, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Mindelsohn Way, Birmingham B15 2GW)

Andrew Beggs is a Professor of Cancer Genetics & Surgery in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of Birmingham. He is also the Deputy Director of the Birmingham Experimental Cancer ...

Dr Andrew Bell is a Lecturer within the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences in the College of Medicine and Health. He has a longstanding interest in Epstein-Barr virus and its associated diseases.

Andrew is Programme Lead for the MSc in Genomic Medicine, a course designed by Health Education England to offer students a multidisciplinary perspective on genomics and its applications to ...

Fedor’s research is focused on communication between cells in tumour microenvironment in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. His research is supported by grants from the Breast Cancer Now, Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust. Fedor is involved in undergraduate teaching and in supervision of postgraduate students.

External web page:  berditchevski-lab.weebly.com 

Lucinda Billingham is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Birmingham. She has worked for over 25 years as a Biostatistician at their Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit and is now Director of Biostatistics for the unit working with a large team of Biostatisticians on an extensive portfolio of early and late phase trials. 

Lucinda has a special interest in lung cancer ...

My name is Constanze Bonifer, I am Emeritus Professor of Experimental Haematology in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences  and I am an Honorary Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Our lab worked on gene regulation in the hematopoietic system. We studied how transcription factors and chromatin components drive differential gene expression during blood cell ...

Rik Bryan is a former clinical urologist, and now a full-time bladder cancer research academic. He is the Chief Investigator of the Bladder Cancer Prognosis Programme (BCPP), the SELENIB clinical trial, and POUT-T. He is the Director of the Bladder Cancer Research Centre (BCRC) in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. The BCRC has a particular interest in the proteomics, genomics and ...

Peter is an Emeritus Professor of Cytokine Gene Regulation within the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences.

He retired at the end of 2023 after working for 13 years at the University of Birmingham.

He maintains an interest in gene regulation in blood cells but no longer teaches or supervises research.

He has spent his career engaged in research using chromatin structure analysis as a ...

Mathew Coleman is Head of the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences.  He is a a Professor in Tumour Cell Biology where his research focusses on the role of protein hydroxylation in the cell biology of tumour cells. He is also Theme Lead for Translational Biology and Genetics.

Mathew has attracted highly competitive funding support from Cancer Research UK, the MRC, BBSRC and Glaxo ...

Gianmarco is a clinician scientist actively working in the field translational oncology of gastrointestinal cancers and cancer genomic medicine. He has established his research group at the University of Birmingham after training in molecular and surgical oncology at worldwide leading institutions. With his research team, he is tackling structural variation of cancer genomes to exploit the ...

Clare Davies is a Reader of Cancer Cell Biology in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, where her research is focused on understanding the role of PRMTs, enzymes that catalyse methylation of arginine residues, in cancer pathogenesis. This is important as inhibitors to specific PRMTs are in pre-clinical development for cancer therapy.

Clare started her research group in 2012 as a ...

Professor Jon Frampton is a stem cell biologist.  Professor Frampton's primary area of interest is in how stem cells operate in adults.

Professor Aga Gambus moved to Cancer Sciences in 2011 to start her independent research. She was awarded MRC Career Development Award and Birmingham Fellowship supporting her research into regulation of DNA replication through small protein modifiers: ubiquitin and SUMO.

Aga’s group discovered the first elements of the mechanism of replication machinery disassembly at termination of DNA ...

The Garcia group research interest is to understand the molecular mechanisms that maintain genome integrity in stem cells and how loss of genome integrity leads to development of cancer during ageing. Her research focuses on both embryonic stem cells ESC/iPSC and adult stem cells, in particular haemopoietic stem cells and breast cancer initiating cells.

 

 

Simon Gates is Professor of Biostatistics and Clinical Trials at the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit(CRCTU). He is a Deputy Director of CRCTU and is involved in design, supervision, analysis and reporting of clinical trials in paediatric cancer and a variety of other fields. His main research interests are in improving the efficiency of clinical trials so that they can provide better and ...

Dr Susanne Gatz is a clinician scientist who aims to combine her clinical expertise in solid tumours with her laboratory interests and expertise into translational research into DNA repair and sarcoma to ultimately identify better treatments for children with cancer, in particular sarcomas.

Susanne joined the University of Birmingham as senior lecturer in Paediatric Oncology in October 2018. She ...

Piers Gaunt is a Principal Biostatistician within the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU). His research focus is on improving the efficiency of clinical trials.

 

Dr Deena Gendoo is an Associate Professor in Computational Biology at the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. Dr Gendoo obtained her PhD in 2012 at McGill University in Canada, and completed her postdoctorate fellowship at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Canada. Over the course of her career, she has developed extensive expertise in bioinformatics and computational biology, applied ...

Professor George Gkoutos has interests in the general areas of clinical and biomedical informatics, computational biology, and integrative & translational research.

Marc Haber is an Associate Professor at the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciencesand leads the Health Data Science Programme at the Dubai Campus. He also directs the Human Genome Diversity group which investigates genetic variation in humans to understand why disease incidence and progression differ among populations. The group prioritizes populations that have been historically ...

Martin Higgs is a group leader in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. He is currently Associate Professor for Genomics and Rare Disease, and leads a research group working on the cellular response to genotoxic stress. He is also Deputy Director for the Centre for Rare Disease Studies (CRDS) Birmingham.  

Martin’s area of expertise is the study of a single ...

Maarten Hoogenkamp is a Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research Bennett Fellow. He joined the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences in summer 2012 to establish his own independent research group.

His research focuses on the dynamic interplay between transcription factor complexes and the chromatin, how this regulates cellular identity during differentiation, and how these interactions change ...

Pam Kearns is Professor of Clinical Paediatric Oncology at the University of Birmingham and an Honorary Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital. She was Director of the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences .

She held the position of Director of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit(CRCTU) from 2012 ...

Professor Hisham Mehanna is the chair of head and neck surgery, and is the Director of the Institute of Head and Neck Studies and Education (InHANSE) at the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences.

Hisham is a head and neck and thyroid surgeon with clinical interests in recurrence in thyroid and parathyroid surgery. He has a keen interest in clinical and translational research, ...

The Monteiro Lab studies the fundamental mechanisms underpinning haematopoiesis in development and homeostasis and how perturbations in these mechanisms lead to haematopoietic disease.

What factors direct cells of a particular lineage(endothelium) to de-differentiate and become a stem cell for a different tissue type (blood)? How do these stem cells maintain the balance between differentiation ...

Professor Jo Morris is interested in the way our cells maintain and repair our genome, keeping our DNA intact.

A particular interest is the functions of the breast and ovarian cancer predisposition protein BRCA1 and the way it works in controlling DNA resection and DNA replication. She also works on the small modifier proteins, ubiquitin and SUMO and is interested in how these change the way ...

Ferenc leads a research group in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences and is a member of the Birmingham Centre for Genome Biology. Their research encompass transcription regulation in vertebrate development and the DNA codes of gene expression regulation. They use zebrafish as a main model system. They collaborate with colleagues in the Medical School and internationally to ...

Dr Paul Nankivell is Senior Clinical lecturer at the Institute of Head and Neck Studies and Education (INHANSE) and Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciencesat the University of Birmingham, and also a Consultant ENT/Head and Neck surgeon in the department of Otolaryngology at the University Hospital Birmingham. He is a member of the University’s INHANSE head and neck cancer research ...

Dr Odintsova’s research interests are focused on an elucidation of the role of tetraspanins in modulation of responses of cancer cells to extracellular stimuli targeting various transmembrane receptors. Specifically her current and future research is focused on the following areas:

a)    Investigation of the role of CD82/KAI1 in releasing of extracellular vesicles with a ...

Claire Palles is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham. 

Her laboratory studies genetic predisposition to gastrointestinal cancers with a focus on discovery and characterisation of:

1)    Genetic variants associated with oesophageal adenocarcinoma and its precursor Barrett’s oesophagus

2)  &nbs ...

Professor Jo Parish was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 2007 and was appointed Senior Lecturer in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham in 2012.

The main focus of Jo’s research is the study of novel virus-host interactions that are important for viral pathogenesis and persistence. Jo has a longstanding interest in the ...

Prashant was jointly appointed in 2010 at the University of Birmingham (UoB) and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham (QEHB) as a clinical academic after completing a year’s fellowship in Perth. He was head hunted and appointed at University College London Hospitals (Urology Dept. World Rank 7, Newsweek 2024) (UCLH) and Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) in November 2022 as an ...

Andrew Peet is an NIHR Research Professor in paediatric neuro-oncology at the University of Birmingham and the Research Director of the NIHR 3T MRI Research Centre at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. He is a practicing paediatric oncologist. Professor Peet’s research focusses on the development and evaluation of novel MRI techniques for diagnosis, management and understanding childhood ...

Professor Petermann’s research focuses on mechanisms of mammalian DNA replication stress, with an emphasis on oncogene-induced replication stress and homologous recombination. She has published more than 35 research papers and review articles in the field of DNA replication and DNA repair. Her lab has received research funding from Cancer Research UK, MRC, BBSRC, Worldwide Cancer Research, ...

Guy Pratt is Professor of Haematology (Haemato-Oncology) at the University of Birmingham and Deputy Director of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unitwith responsibility for Haematology trials. He is secretary for both the British Society for Haematology and the UK Myeloma Society and trustee for the charity Cure Leukaemia. He is an Honorary Consultant Haematologist at University Hospitals ...

Professor Daniel Rea is a Medical Oncologist with a primary Research Interest in Breast Cancer.

Dr Saponaro is interested in characterising mechanisms of genome stability maintenance. In particular, he is interested in understanding how RNA Pol II transcription and DNA replication are coordinated, and how in context with defective transcription this can lead to increased genome instability. He develops his research combining whole genome analyses with functional studies. He characterises ...

Dr Sovan Sarkar is an Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham, and holds the distinction of Former Fellow for life at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. He is also involved in setting up academic and research collaborations with India. His laboratory studies the biological process of autophagy, which is an intracellular degradation pathway essential for cellular survival. Using ...

Neil Sharma is a Clinician Scientist and practising Consultant Head and Neck Surgeon, with a lead role in the thyroid cancer service at University Hospital Birmingham.

Neil’s main research interest lies in clinical and translational studies in to head and neck cancer, particularly thyroid cancer.  He is also involved in developing sustainable research and development programmes in ...

Professor Steve Smerdon is a structural biologist with a long-standing interest in biological signaling processes. For the last twenty years or so, he has been mainly focussed on how cells respond to DNA damage and how protein modifications such as phosphorylation and, more recently, ubiquitylation regulate the timely assembly of protein complexes responsible for maintenance of genomic integrity.

...

Professor Stankovic is a passionate advocate of translational research in the fields of DNA damage response and hematologic malignancies. For over two decades, her group has studied different ways to manipulate defective DNA damage responses in tumour cells for therapeutic benefit. A particular emphasis is given to the concept of synthetic lethality and pharmacological targeting of compensatory ...

Professor Grant Stewart is a Professor of Cancer Genetics in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences.

Defective repair of DNA damage is the most frequent underlying cause of genetic instability and cancer development. Professor Stewart's research focuses on understanding how the cell detects and repairs damage to its DNA and how defects in this process contribute to the development of ...

Sudha Sundar is a gynaecological cancer surgeon and a clinical academic. Her research programme focusses on improving cancer diagnostics, cancer surgery and addressing inequalities in cancer outcomes. Sudha’s research has led to change of NICE guidance to recommend maximum cytoreduction surgery for ovarian cancer. She has recently completed her term as the President of the British ...

Malcolm Taylor is an Emeritus Professor of Cancer Genetics within the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. Malcolm has published over 120 Research papers and received consistent major support from Cancer Research UK as well as the Leukaemia Research Fund.

He also has a close relationship with the charity, the Ataxia -Telangiectasia Society and his laboratory is NCG designated for the ...

Andy Turnell is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences.  He is interested in how viruses regulate host cell transcription programmes and cell cycle checkpoints in order to promote viral replication and cellular transformation. He is particularly interested in how adenovirus oncoproteins modulate the function of host cell proteins to regulate chromatin, the ...

Bryan Turner is an internationally recognised expert in the fields of epigenetics and gene regulation. He has published over 140 research papers in scientific journals as well as reviews and book chapters. He has written a long-lived book on his specialist research area (Chromatin and Gene Regulation: Mechanisms in Epigenetics, Blackwell Scientific 2001). He has received major grants from Cancer ...

Richard is an Associate Professor and Head of Education based in the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. He is a cell biologist with a particular interest in understanding DNA damage in neurological disease.

 

 

Doug is a Senior Research Fellow leading the laboratory research into biomarkers at the Bladder Cancer Research Centre. His group’s research spans all aspects of tissue and liquid biopsy biomarkers - from initial candidate discovery though to validation and translation into clinical use.

 

Professor Colin Watts leads the newly established Brain Cancer Programme at the University of Birmingham. His research aims to improve the treatment and survival of patients with glioma by understanding the molecular genetic heterogeneity of individual tumours and using that data to develop novel molecular and functional stratification suitable for application in clinical trials. His clinical ...

Victoria Wykes is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham and an Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon at University Hospital Birmingham, sub-specialising in neurosurgical oncology and epilepsy surgery. 

Victoria is the local principal investigator for the Tessa Jowell Brain Matrix study  and chief ...