Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMC) Network
Junior Investigator Network Group (JING)
Training the Next Generation
Faculty & Attendees Biographies
The County Hotel, Neville Street, Newcastle, NE1 5DF
25 & 26th January 2016
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1. Chairs
Dr Matt Ahearne……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………..5
Dr Donna Graham………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………….…..5
Dr Kienan Savage ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5
Dr Stefan Symeonides…………………………………………………………………………………………………...…………….6
Dr Lalit Pallan………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……..6
Dr Harriet Walters ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7
Dr Stuart Williamson………………………………………………………………………………………………….………….….…7
2. Faculty
Dr Udai Banerj ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………8
Dr Bristi Basu ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………..8
Professor Lucinda Billingham………………………………………………………………………………….…….……………..8
Dr Sarah Blagden……………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………9
Professor Karen Brown…………………………………………………………………………………………………….………….9
Professor Robert Brown………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10
Professor John Chester…………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………..10
Dr Albena Dinkova-Kostova…………………………………………………………………………………….……………..…..10
Professor Caroline Dive……………………………………………………………………………………………………………...11
Professor Michael Douek……………………………………………………………………………………………………….…..11
Professor Jeff Evans………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………….12
Dr Martin Forster…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….12
Dr Alex Freeman…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………12
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Professor Andrew Hughes……………………………………………………………………..…………………………………..13
Professor Richard Kaplan ………………………………………………………… ………..………………..…………………..13
Ms Caroline Kelly (nee Bray) …………………………………………………………………………………..…………………14
Dr Rebecca Kristeileit ……………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………14
Professor Gary Middleton…………………………………………………………………………………….…………….……..14
Dr Alastair Greystoke………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………….15
Professor Herbie Newell………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………15
Dr Richard Oakley…………………………………………………………………………………………………… ..………………15
Professor Stephen O'Brien…………………………………………………………………………….……………………………16
Dr Jim Paul…………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………….…….16
Professor Ruth Plummer………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………16
Professor Ricky Sharma……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..17
Dr James Spicer………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….17
Dr Fiona Thomson………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………17
Professor Chris Twelves…………………………………………...……………………………………………………..…………18
Dr Victoria Woodcock……………………………………….……………………………………………………………………….18
Dr Charlotte Wilhelm-Benartzi…………………………………………………………………………………….…………….18
Dr Tim Yap………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….19
3. PPI
Ms Carol Berwick………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……..19
Mr Jim Elliot………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…..20
Ms Debby Lennard……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…...20
Mr Chris Taylor…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..20
Mr Stehpen Thomas………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…21
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4. Cancer Research UK Patient Engagement
Trevor Bott ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….……21
Eleanor Wheeler………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………21
Rebecca White……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………22
5. ECMC Secretariat
Dr Steve Nabarro ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………22
Dr Ilaria Mirabile …………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………22
Dr Nuria Vazquez Salat ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………23
Dr Nicholas Wong …………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………23
Uzma Jameer …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…..……………23
Hannah Brown ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………23
Caitlin Hamilton……………………………………………………………………………………………….………………..….……24
Dr Aoife Regan …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..24
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1. Chairs:
Sessions will be chaired by members of the Junior Investigator Network Group (JING) Steering
Committee who have developed the programme fror the event.
Dr Matt Ahearne
Clinical lecturer in Haematology
Matt has an interest in developing new diagnostic and
therapeutic approaches in T-cell lymphoma and the study of
the microenvironment in B-cell lymphoma.
He has experience of digital pathology, flow cytometry, and
analysis of circulating tumour DNA, and is also a trainee
member of the NCRI Lymphoma Clinical Study Group.
Dr Donna Graham
PhD Researcher at Queen’s University Belfast
Donna gained her BSc degree with first class honours in
Pathology from Queen's University Belfast and subsequently
graduated from Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast, prior
to completing training as a Medical Oncologist through the
Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.
She has completed a Medical Oncology fellowship from
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto in lung cancer,
head and neck cancer, and Phase I clinical trials in 2014, and is
currently enrolled in a PhD research programme in Queen’s
University Belfast.
Dr. Kienan Savage
Cancer Focus Northern Ireland Lecturer in Molecular Oncology in the
Centre for Cancer Research & Cell Biology – Queen’s University Belfast
Kienan originally obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical
Science from Griffith University in Australia, followed by an
MBBS/PhD programme at the Queensland Institute of Medical
research and the University of Queensland in Australia. Kienan
joined the BRCA1 research group at Queen’s University Belfast
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in 2007 before forming the DNA damage response group at
Queen’s in 2012.
Kienan’s basic and translational research interests focus on
understanding the cellular DNA damage response/repair
systems with a particular emphasis on how defects in these
pathways, such as BRCA1 mutations, contribute to cancer
development, progression and response to treatment. Kienan’s
work also focus’s on harnessing this knowledge to develop
novel chemopreventive strategies for women at high-risks of
breast and ovarian cancer due to mutations in DNA repair
genes such as BRCA1, BRCA2 and ATM.
Dr Stefan Symeonides
Clinical Lecturer in Medical Oncology and Clinician Scientist in
Experimental Cancer Medicine at the Edinburgh Cancer Research
Centre
Stefan's main research focus is in novel therapeutic discovery
and development, which he has been involved in from the
clinic, from academia and from industry, after having trained
across the UK, Australia and New Zealand. His clinical focus is
the Edinburgh Phase I unit, as well as in genitourinary cancers,
particularly renal.
As an academic, he links laboratory and clinical research at the
Edinburgh CRUK centres & ECMCs. Although he works across
cytotoxic, small molecule, metabolic and even psychological
therapies, his main research area is in immunotherapies.
Dr Lalit Pallan
Medical Oncology Trainee, Birmingham
Lalit is a Medical Oncology Trainee based in the West Midlands
with a particular interest in skin cancers.
He has recently completed an MRC Clinical Research Training
Fellowship investigating the immunology of Merkel cell skin
cancer.
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Dr Harriet Walter
Medical Oncology Trainee, Leicester
Harriet is a medical oncology trainee at Leicester having
graduated from Birmingham University. She is currently
undertaking a 3 year Clinical Research Fellowship in
Haematology with Professor Dyer at the University of Leicester
where she is looking at the mechanisms of resistance of
Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors and is involved with early
phase clinical trials in haematological malignancies.
Dr Stuart Williamson
Chair of the JING Steering Committee and Post-Doctoral Researcher,
Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology Group, Cancer Research UK
Manchester Institute
Stuart was appointed chair of the JING Steering Committee in
June 2013. He moved to Manchester in 2014 where he joined
Caroline Dive’s group where he focuses on tumour cell
heterogeneity along with mechanisms of cancer progression
and relapse, with a particular focus on small cell lung cancer.
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2. Faculty
Dr Udai Banerji
Team Leader at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) London
Udai is responsible for designing and running Phase I clinical
trials of new personalised cancer treatments. He is a Reader in
Molecular Cancer Pharmacology, running a research team and
passing on his knowledge to the next generation of researchers
and clinicians.
Dr Bristi Basu
Cancer Research UK Consultant Medical Oncologist in Experimental
Cancer Therapeutics at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
Bristi trained in Medicine at Oxford University before
undertaking clinical specialty training in Medical Oncology at
Cambridge. During this time, she completed a PhD in cancer cell
biology and drug discovery as a Cancer Research UK Gordon
Hamilton-Fairley Clinical Research Training Fellow at the
University of Cambridge.
She has considerable experience with experimental cancer
therapy agents in early phase trials both at Addenbrooke's
Hospital, Cambridge and at the Drug Development Unit, Royal
Marsden Hospital. She is an Academic Consultant in
Experimental Cancer Therapeutics at Cambridge and is utilising
her background to translate findings arising from pre-clinical
research when designing and running clinical studies of novel
anticancer drugs and imaging agents.
Professor Lucinda Billingham
Professor of Biostatistics, Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences
and the Director of Statistics, Cancer Research UK CTU, University of
Birmingham
Lucinda runs an extensive portfolio of Phase I to III clinical trials
at the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit at Birmingham.
She has an interest in lung cancer and sarcoma and leads the
portfolio of research in these disease areas with the Trials Unit.
As well as her PhD research on statistical methods for the
simultaneous analysis of quality of life and survival data, other
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key areas of expertise include design and analysis of early phase
clinical trials, evaluation of predictive biomarkers for stratified
medicine and application of Bayesian methods in clinical trials.
Dr Sarah Blagden
Associate Professor of Experimental Cancer Therapeutics ,
Department of Oncology, University of Oxford
Following medical training and subsequent specialist training
in Medical Oncology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge
and the Royal Marsden Hospital, Sarah was awarded a CRUK
Junior Clinician Scientist PhD fellowship in 1999 at Cambridge
University and held a Clinical Fellowship at the Institute of
Cancer Research’s Drug Development Unit.
She was appointed as Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant
at Imperial College in 2006 and became Director of Imperial’s
Early Cancer Trials Unit and established her laboratory studying
the dysregulation of mRNA translation in cancer. She has been
chief or principal investigator for a number of national and
international clinical studies.
Professor Karen Brown
ECMC Lead and Professor of Translational Cancer Research,
University of Leicester
Karen’s research is focussed on the discovery and preclinical
development of agents for the prevention of cancer and
optimising the translation of these therapies to the clinic. She
has an interest in both natural compounds such as curcumin
and resveratrol and existing drugs that can be repurposed for
cancer prevention.
Intrinsic to her work is the identification and development of
pharmacodynamic biomarkers for monitoring activity in
humans and the use of clinically relevant models, informed by
reverse translation of trials results. Karen is also Co-Chair of the
UK Therapeutic Cancer Prevention Network Group and a
member of the steering committee for the Cancer & Nutrition
NIHR infrastructure collaboration.
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Professor Robert Brown
ECMC Lead and Chair in Translational Oncology, Department of
Surgery and Oncology, Imperial College London
Bob’s work focuses on epigenetics and drug resistance, with a
particular focus on ovarian cancer. He and his team have
shown that aberrant DNA methylation and epigenetic silencing
of genes in tumours can predict response to chemotherapy
and patient survival.
His current work facilitates the development of compounds,
which can reverse epigenetic silencing, and is using molecular
biomarker assays to aid the clinical use of these compounds and
has initiated studies on identifying and targeting cancer specific
epigenetic changes in ovarian tumour stem cells. Bob is also
Vice-Chair of the Cancer Research UK New Agents Committee.
Professor John Chester
ECMC Lead and Cancer Research UK Professor of Medical Oncology,
Cardiff University and Honorary Consultant, Velindre Cancer Centre
John’s clinical research interests are in trials for bladder and
head/neck cancers, including trials of oncolytic viruses and
molecularly-targeted therapies. His laboratory research
interests include virus-mediated gene therapy and molecular
biomarkers of response to cancer therapy.
Dr Albena Dinkova-Kostova
Reader and Deputy Head at the Division of Cancer Research, the
Jacqui Wood Cancer Centre, School of Medicine, University of
Dundee
Albena’s work is at the interface of Chemistry and Biology. She
has been working in the area of the Phase 2 cytoprotective
response for more than 15 years, with an emphasis on the
mechanisms of its regulation and the chemistry of smallmolecule inducers of its master regulator, transcription factor
NRF2.
More recently, her group found that many NRF2 activators also
activate transcription factor HSF1, the master regulator of the
heat shock response. Her current work aims to characterize the
interactions between NRF2 and HSF1, both of which are
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frequently deregulated in cancer. Albena is the recipient of the
2011 Arthur C. Neish Young Investigator Award of the
Phytochemical Society of North America.
Professor Caroline Dive
Senior Group Leader at the CRUK Manchester Institute and Professor
of Pharmacology at the University of Manchester
After completing her PhD studies in Cambridge, Caroline
moved to Aston University's School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
in Birmingham where she started her own group studying
mechanisms of drug induced tumour cell death. She then
moved to what became the Faculty of Life Sciences at The
University of Manchester to continue this research.
Caroline was awarded a Lister Institute of Preventative
Medicine Research Fellowship before moving to the CRUK
Manchester Institute in 2003. Here she set up the Clinical and
Experimental Pharmacology Group interfacing with the Derek
Crowther Unit for early clinical trials at The Christie.
Professor Michael Douek
Professor of Surgical Oncology King's College London and Honorary
Consultant Surgeon at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital
Michael is a breast cancer surgeon with a research interest in
developing and evaluating novel techniques for cancer
surgery. He developed a novel magnetic technique for sentinel
node biopsy and breast lesion localisation, is one of the
pioneers of intra-operative radiotherapy for breast cancer and
is the chief investigator of several international surgical device
trials.
In 2003, he was awarded a Health Foundation Clinician
Scientist grant by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences funding
his Senior Lecturer post at UCL. In 2015, he was awarded a
prestigious Hunterian Professorship by the Royal College of
Surgeons of England.
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Professor Jeff Evans
ECMC Lead and Professor of Translational Cancer Research, Head of
Experimental Therapeutics Unit and Director of the Institute of
Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow
Jeff’s clinical interests are in upper GI, pancreatic cancer and
melanoma. He focuses on the pre-clinical and clinical
development of novel anti-cancer agents including molecular
targeted therapies. Jeff also leads the Phase I clinical trials and
drug development team in Glasgow and is a member of the AZ
– ECMC Combinations Alliance Steering Committee.
Dr Martin Forster
Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Medical Oncology,
University College London Hospital
Martin is involved in the management of patients with both
lung and head and neck cancers. He is interested in drug
development and in using the increasing understanding of
cancer biology to design studies that distinguish patient
populations most likely to gain benefit from new drugs and
new drug combinations.
He has a particular interest in the cancer biology that leads to
the development of both lung and head and neck cancers.
Dr Alex Freeman
Consultant Histopathologist at University College London Hospitals
NHS Foundation Trust
Alex trained mainly at UCLH, with attachments to Royal
Brompton Hospital and Royal Marsden Hospital. He spent two
years at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge completing an
MD thesis with Professor Ron Laskey in molecular biology.
His main areas of interest are Urological Pathology and
Dermatopathology.
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Professor Andrew Hughes
Early Phase Clinical Trial Director for Oncology and Professor
Experimental Cancer Medicine, The Christie, Manchester
Andrew leads the experimental cancer medicine team at The
Christie. Previous to that Andrew was Global VP of early clinical
development at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals leading over 50
research and early clinical development programmes of novel
candidate drugs.
He graduated with double first in medical sciences at
Cambridge, and subsequently practiced general clinical
medicine in Manchester’s teaching hospitals in the UK, joining
Zeneca in 1994 from being a registrar in Cardiology, and until
recently continued with clinical work.
He is a former member of the board of NCRI, on the editorial
committee for Annals of Oncology and on the Steering
Committee for the FDA Biomarkers Consortium. In November
2006, he was appointed to a chair of Translational medicine at
the University of Manchester, UK. He serves on CRUK’s
Biomarkers evaluation research panel and MRC’s translational
medicine grant awarding bodies.
Professor Richard Kaplan
Associate Director of the NIHR CRN, Senior Clinical Scientist with the
Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit and Honorary Consultant
in Oncology at University College London Hospital
Rick’s research interests are in biologically stratified clinical
trials designs, biomarker development/validation with clinical
research interests in colorectal and prostate cancer.
Rick was responsible for scientific coordination of NCI-funded or
sponsored treatment trials in gastrointestinal, urological and
brain malignancies, and has served on advisory committees and
panels for NCI, NIH, FDA and for other government agencies
and professional organisations, as well as for clinical trials
organisations in North America, Europe and Australia.
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Ms Caroline Kelly (nee Bray)
Senior Statistician, Cancer Research Clinical Trials Unit, Glasgow /
Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow
Caroline plays a key role in the biostatistics of a number Phase
I and II trials at the CR-UK CTU, Glasgow. Her published work
includes studies in renal cancer, melanoma, non-Hodgkin
lymphoma, head and neck cancers and mesothelioma. She is a
member of the NCRI Renal Cancer Clinical Studies Group and
sits on a number of IDMCs and TSCs for national studies.
Dr Rebecca Kristeileit
Senior Lecturer Experimental Therapeutics and Consultant Medical
Oncologist UCL
Rebecca joined UCL/UCLH as a clinical senior lecturer and
consultant medical oncologist in October 2009 to develop the
early phase clinical trial and translational research programme
in solid tumours with a specialist focus in gynaecological
malignancy (ovarian, endometrial and cervical cancers).
Previously, she undertook her specialist training in medical
oncology at The Royal Marsden Hospital and developed a
specialist interest at an early stage in her career to the
application of novel therapeutics in cancer, and pursued a
CRUK-funded research fellowship at the Institute of Cancer
Research, Sutton and Drug Development Unit at The Royal
Marsden Hospital investigating the preclinical and clinical
pharmacology of HDAC inhibitors and was awarded her PhD in
2009.
Professor Gary Middleton
Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Birmingham.
Gary is the chief investigator on the National Lung Matrix
Study and is also chief investigator of PePS2, FOCUS4A,
RUXSAC, TELOVAC, VIP and co-CI on TORCMEK. He sits on the
Lung CSG, the NCRI advanced colorectal sub-group, the NCRI
pancreatic sub-group and CTAAC.
His translational interests include tumour immunobiology and
the tumour microenviroment with a particular focus on MDSCs
and the somatic and germline drivers of an anti-cancer
immune response.
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Dr Alastair Greystoke
Lecturer in Medical Oncology at Newcastle University
Alastair joined Newcastle University and the Northern Centre
for Cancer Care in 2014 after 8 years spent at the University of
Manchester/ Christie NHS Trust where he completed a PhD in
the utility of circulating biomarkers of apoptosis. He is one of 3
consultants that work within the Sir Bobby Robson Early Clinical
Trials Centre at the Freeman hospital in Newcastle, and has a
special interest in the development of new anti-cancer drugs for
patients with lung cancer.
He leads systemic therapy research for NSCLC in the North-East,
as well as treating patients with NSCLC both at Newcastle and
Sunderland hospitals. In addition he leads the
Pharmacodynamic Biomarker team at the Northern Institute for
Cancer Research, where he continues his translational interest
in circulating biomarkers to guide patient care.
Professor Herbie Newell
Professor of Cancer Therapeutics, Northern Institute for Cancer
Research, Newcastle University
Herbie’s research expertise covers cancer pharmacology,
pharmacokinetics, DNA repair modulation and kinase
inhibitors. He has over 40 years experience of the discovery
and development of conventional and novel cancer
chemotherapies. His current work includes cyclin dependent
kinases, DNA damage related kinases and receptor tyrosine
kinases.
Dr Richard Oakley
Senior Research Funding Manager, CRUK
Richard did his PhD in chemistry at Bristol University working
on self-assembling polymers. He undertook a postdoc in
cardiovascular tissue engineering at the EPFL in Switzerland for
two years. After a year in science policy at the Royal Society of
Chemistry, he moved to CRUK, where he has been for three
years.
At Cancer Research UK he initially worked on science
committee looking at CRUK basic science portfolio, he then
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moved to the Institutes team to work with core funded
Institutes and recently moved to the fellowships team helping
to support our early career researchers.
Professor Stephen O'Brien
Professor of Haematology at Newcastle University
Stephen is Professor of Haematology at Newcastle University
and Consultant Haematologist at the Newcastle Hospitals NHS
Foundation Trust. Following graduation and internal medical
experience in Manchester, his training in haematology was
undertaken at the Hammersmith Hospital in London.
He is the Chief Investigator for the National Cancer Research
Network’s SPIRIT trials in chronic myeloid leukaemia and
member of the European Leukemia Network. He is also a
member of NICE Technology Appraisal Committee C and cochair of the North of England Cancer Drug Fund.
Dr Jim Paul
Senior Research Fellow, Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit,
University of Glasgow
Jim is Head of Biostatistics at the Cancer Research UK Clinical
Trials Unit (CTU) based in the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer
Centre and is currently involved with in a range of studies
(Phase I-III) across a range of cancers. He is a member of a
number of Data Monitoring and Trials Steering Committees
and has a particular interest in phase II studies of molecularly
targeted agents.
Professor Ruth Plummer
ECMC Lead and Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine, Northern
Institute for Cancer Research, Newcastle University and Freeman
Hospital
Ruth leads the Newcastle ECMC and also the CR-UK Newcastle
Cancer Centre. Her clinical focus is melanoma and her recent
research includes early phase trials of PARP and
monocarboxylate transporter 1 (MCT1) inhibitors. Ruth also
chairs the Cancer Research UK New Agents Committee.
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Professor Ricky Sharma
Associate Professor and Group Leader of the Translational Biomarker
Development Group at the CRUK/MRC Oxford Institute for Radiation
Oncology
Ricky is also an Honorary Consultant in Clinical Oncology at the
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and a Senior Research
Fellow at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. He
is a Fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians and the
Royal College of Radiologists. He Co-Chairs the Early Phase
Trials Workstream of the NCRI Clinical Translational
Radiotherapy (CTRad) Group and is the founding chair of the
Cancer Teaching Committee, University of Oxford.
Dr James Spicer
Reader in Experimental Oncology and Consultant in Medical
Oncology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, Kings College London
James runs the King’s Health Partners Cancer Early Phase Trials
programme, and has worked on numerous Phase 1 trials. He is
joint lead of the King’s Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre.
His clinical interests include the care of patients with thoracic
malignancies, including lung cancer and mesothelioma, and
clinical trials in these diseases. His translational research focus
is on novel immunotherapies and molecular diagnostics. He is
a member of CRUK’s New Agents Committee and other
national funding panels.
Dr Fiona Thomson
Director of the ECMC Translational Sciences Laboratory, University of
GlasgowFiona joined the Institute of Cancer Sciences,
University of Glasgow, in early November of 2014 as Director
of the ECMC translational sciences laboratory. Her current
research is focused on the discovery and development of
novel ’non-invasive’ biomarkers to aid early cancer diagnosis,
prognosis and to support the development of novel cancer
therapies through clinical trials.
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Fiona is a pharmacologist who has spent the last 15 years in
the pharmaceutical industry, latterly at Merck (MSD),
discovering and developing novel therapeutics.
Professor Chris Twelves
ECMC Lead and Professor and Honorary Consultant in Medical
Oncology, Biomedical Health Research Centre, University of Leeds
Chris’ research interests are in new drug development and
clinical pharmacology and his clinical interests are in colorectal
and breast cancer. Chris has sat on a number of committees
including being an ex-member Cancer Research UK New
Agents Committee, was ex-Chair of the EORTC New Drug
Development Group and has helped to champion the ECMC
Trial Harmonisation Programme.
Dr Victoria Woodcock
Clinical Research Fellow, Oxford Clinical Trials Research Unit
Victoria studied medicine at Warwick after completing an
undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences at the University
of London. She is training in medical oncology in Oxford and
was awarded a CTAAC Clinical Trials Fellowship in 2015.
She is based in the CRUK Oxford Centre Early Phase CTU and is
responsible for running a portfolio of clinical trials under the
supervision of Professor Mark Middleton. The particular focus
of her work is on immunotherapy trials in melanoma and early
phase trials of molecularly targeted agents.
Dr Charlotte Wilhelm-Benartzi
Research Fellow - Clinical Trials Statistician, Imperial College London
Charlotte received her Bachelors in Science from McGill
University in Microbiology and Immunology in 2005 and went
on to Brown University to receive her MPH in 2007 and her
PhD in Epidemiology in 2011. She joined the Epigenetics group
in May 2011 as a postdoctoral research associate, working
primarily with Dr. Robert Brown as a biostatistician.
As of January 2015, Charlotte joined ICTU-Cancer as a Clinical
Trials Statistician. Charlotte's research interests include the
use of biomarkers in molecularly augmented clinical trials and
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the development of appropriate methodology to incorporate
those biomarkers in a trial setting.
Dr Tim Yap
JING Steering Committee Member. Clinician Scientist and Consultant
Medical Oncologist in the Drug Development and Lung Cancer Units,
and the Cancer Biomarkers Lab at the Royal Marsden Hospital and
The Institute of Cancer Research
Tim's translational and clinical interests are in drug
development and lung cancer. His main research involves the
design and conduct of early phase clinical trials, and the
preclinical and clinical development of predictive and
pharmacodynamic biomarkers involving tumour, plasma DNA
and circulating tumour cells.
He has been involved in the development of AKT inhibitors and
other novel agents, including PARP and ATR inhibitors in
patients with DNA repair defects. He is on the Faculty of the
Flims ECCO-AACR-EORTC-ESMO Clinical Trials Workshop.
3. Patient & Public Involvement (PPI)
Carol Berwick
Carol is Director of External Affairs for Fight for Sight, the eye
research charity. Her career in corporate communications,
engagement and public relations spans the private, public and
charitable sectors. Working as an interim director for 10 years,
she has experience across many subject areas but latterly
focused mainly on health including being Director of
Communications for NICE.
Working with diverse stakeholders and complex issues, her
experience includes director level roles in the arts, health and
social care, nuclear industry, regulation, education, research
and criminal justice.
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Jim Elliot
Jim studied biochemistry in Southampton and Coventry. He
worked as a research manager for the Department of Health for
more than 20 years, before working with a number of charities,
where he developed an interest in involving the public in
research.
Jim now has a part time role at the HRA leading their work on
public involvement. He spends the rest of his time getting
involved in research based on his lived experiences as a long
term carer for a number of close family members over many
years. Jim started to get involved in research about five years
ago mostly with a focus on cancer, and has been involved with
the National Institute for Health Research and a number of
charities in that time including Cancer Research UK.
Debby Lennard
Debby’s career has mainly been in IT with the Public Sector,
with a specialism in Project and Programme Management. Her
professional background gives Debby a good foundation in
analysing and accessing information, in a practical and
pragmatic way.
Her interest lies in research and how it can be implemented
speedily to improve patient outcomes, and she is a grant
proposal reviewer for the NIHR and is on the lay review boards
for the UCLH cancer programme for the North Thames CLAHRC.
Chris Taylor
Chris trained in radiotherapy as a radiographer at
Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. On qualifying he changed
to pursue a career in Nuclear Medicine and worked as a
technologist for the next 35 years in the NHS.
Much of his career has involved explaining and interpreting
complicated and often quite frightening information to many
groups of people, but he has also worked with the Department
of Health to develop National Occupational Standard. This
involved working with many different scientists and
technologists from other sectors of the NHS to try and
understand their roles in creating a national system.
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Stephen Thomas
Stephen has experienced cancer as both a carer and a patient.
After his personal recovery in 2011, a job opportunity arose with
Tenovus Cancer Care, a Welsh based charity, where Stephen
provided a patient input into the awarding of their Innovation
Grants. He now proudly Chairs the Research Advisory Group,
who are in their 4th year of having contributed to research in
areas from head and neck cancers to reflexology and all points in
between.
Stephen is also one of Cancer Research UK’s Involvement
Coaches, tasked with enabling the inclusion of the patient voice
within the work that they do. This has included training staff,
speaking at events and being involved in projects such as Cancer
Research UK’s Grand Challenge.
4. Cancer Research UK Patient Engagement
Trevor Bolt
Clinical Trials Database Nurse
Eleanor Wheeler
Senior Involvement Officer
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Rebecca White
Science Communications Officer
5. ECMC Secretariat
Dr Steve Nabarro
Head of ECMC Secretariat
Dr Ilaria Mirabile
Network Insight Project Manager
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Dr Nuria Vazquez Salat
Senior Research Manager
Dr Nicholas Wong
Programme Manager
Uzma Jameer
Programme Office Manager
Hannah Brown
Project Officer
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Caitlin Hamilton
Communications Officer
Dr Aoife Regan
Head of ECMC Secretariat (maternity leave)
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