Faculty of Medicine and Health
School of Medicine
Leeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology
Professor / Clinical Professor in Breast Cancer Research
This exciting opportunity is as a result of a generous bequest and the shared long-term commitment of
Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust and the University of Leeds to strengthen our pursuit of ambitious goals in
progressing our major research objectives. We are seeking the appointment of a leading
scientific/translational and/or clinical breast cancer researcher at Chair level to provide academic leadership
and transform Leeds into a nationally excellent (top 5), and internationally leading centre for breast cancer
research.
There are particular opportunities in relation to research relating to:
I. Our Cancer Research UK Centre (Lead, Tooze) themes and Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre
(Lead, Twelves) activities
II. Collaborations with existing strengths in the Faculties of Medicine (Dean, Stewart) and Biological
Sciences (Dean, Ladbury).
III. Clinical informatics is strong though the Leeds Electronic Patient Record (Hall) and Leeds hosts the
MRC Medical Bioinformatics Centre (Markham and colleagues); both will facilitate future clinical and
translational research.
Do you have an established, international-quality translational research programme in any aspect of Breast
Cancer Research? Are you interested in being part of our strong team at this exciting time of growth and
investment? Would you like the opportunity to lead and shape Breast Cancer Research in Leeds? If so we
would love to hear from you
The University of Leeds is committed to providing equal opportunities for all and offers a range of
family friendly policies (http://hr.leeds.ac.uk/homepage/4/policies). The University is a charter
member of Athena SWAN and holds the Bronze award. The School of Medicine gained the Bronze
award in 2013. We are committed to being an inclusive medical school that values all staff, and we
are happy to consider job share applications and requests for flexible working arrangements from
our employees.
We are keen to invite applications from clinical and non-clinical applicants. Clinical professorial
appointments will include an Honorary Consultant Contract with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS
Trust, one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe serving a diverse population with state of the
art facilities at the new St James’s Institute of Oncology.
As part of the application process you will be required to upload the following documents:
1. A CV;
2. A supporting statement
Informal enquiries regarding the post should be directed to Professor Tim Bishop, Director Leeds
Institute of Cancer and Pathology; d.t.bishop@leeds.ac.uk or Professor Chris Twelves, Head
Section of Clinical Cancer Research; c.j.twelves@leeds.ac.uk.
If you have any specific enquiries about your online application please contact Sue Curry,
s.e.curry@adm.leeds.ac.uk ,Tel +44(0) 113 343 1845.
Job Ref: MHCAP1049
Closing Date: 13 March 2016
Our Ambition
The University of Leeds is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 universities in the QS World rankings and is
one of the UK’s largest and foremost research-intensive universities. We pride ourselves on our distinctive
ability to integrate research, scholarship and education, and we have ambitious plans to improve further our
standing as a world-class academic institution. The results of the recent Research Excellence Framework
(REF) saw Leeds ranked in 10th place for research power, with the assessment identifying over 80% of our
research activity as top quality at either “world leading” or “internationally excellent” standing.
The Faculty of Medicine and Health (FMH) at Leeds is the largest Faculty within the University with over £135
million annual turnover, equating to 25% of the University total. Our Faculty generates around £70 million in
annual research income and we are proud of our strong teaching partnerships including with Leeds Teaching
Hospitals NHS Trust (one of the largest NHS trusts in the country).
We have an ambitious agenda to increase and strengthen existing research talent within the Faculty of
Medicine and Health and across the University of Leeds more widely, and are seeking highly talented
individuals to join us and make a major contribution towards the realisation of this ambitious plan.
Breast Cancer Research in Leeds
The breast cancer service at Leeds is one of the UK’s largest with more than 9,000 new referrals of patients
with breast symptoms annually, and over 600 patients subsequently treated for breast cancer. We deliver
excellent clinical outcomes and were ranked 6th of 132 units across England and Wales in the 2012/13
National Cancer Patient Experience Survey and were the top scoring large academic breast cancer unit.
Breast cancer services are co-located within the St James’s Institute of Oncology in one of the UK’s largest
cancer centres on the same site as the University of Leeds Institute for Cancer and Pathology. The School
of Medicine at the University of Leeds is a major international centre for research and education. Breast
cancer research in Leeds is nationally and international competitive, bibliometric analysis (H-index) ranked
Leeds 9th within England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Twelve Leeds breast researchers were returned in
the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF); we also contributed two Impact Case Studies.
There is a broad range to our existing breast cancer research:



Translational laboratory breast cancer research groups are studying breast cancer brain metastases, with
a focus on the tumour microenvironment, immunomodulatory therapies and stem cell-mediated delivery
of therapies (Lorger); estrogen receptor regulation and 3D in vitro modelling (Speirs); the regulation of
gene expression, influence of the tumour microenvironment, and use of predictive markers (Hughes);
signaling pathways in breast cancer (Beattie). Leeds also hosts the National Breast Cancer Now Tissue
Bank (Speirs, Hanby), the UK's first such cancer tissue bank.
Clinical trial recruitment and leadership are strong in systemic and local therapies (Dodwell, Horgan,
Perren, Twelves) from Phase I through Phase III trials. We work closely with the Leeds Clinical Trials
Research Institute (Director, Brown), within which breast cancer trials are managed in the Cancer Division
(Lead, Gregory). The new Yorkshire Cancer Research Centre for Early Phase Clinical Trials in Leeds
provides a route for the design and delivery of breast cancer trials.
Innovations in breast cancer come through strengths in patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)
and psycho-social oncology (Velikova), trial design and analysis (Gregory) and in both MR and PET
imaging (Buckley, Scarsbrook).
The role
As the result of a generous bequest and the shared long-term commitment of Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust
and the University of Leeds to strengthen our pursuit of ambitious goals in progressing our major research
objectives we are seeking the appointment of a leading scientific/translational and/or clinical breast cancer
researcher at Chair level to provide academic leadership and transform Leeds into a nationally excellent (top
5), and internationally leading centre for breast cancer research.
There are particular opportunities in relation to research relating to
I.
Our Cancer Research UK Centre (Lead, Tooze) themes and Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre
(Lead, Twelves) activities
II.
Collaborations with existing strengths in the Faculties of Medicine (Dean, Stewart) and Biological
Sciences (Dean, Ladbury).
III.
Clinical informatics is strong though the Leeds Electronic Patient Record (Hall) and Leeds hosts the MRC
Medical Bioinformatics Centre (Markham and colleagues); both will facilitate future clinical and
translational research.
Do you have an established, international-quality translational research programme in any aspect of Breast
Cancer Research? Are you interested in being part of our strong team at this exciting time of growth and
investment? Would you like the opportunity to lead and shape Breast Cancer Research in Leeds? If so we
would love to hear from you.
The post holder will:

Deliver top quality research outputs that contributes to impact and innovation

Take on a significant leadership role in the organisation in education and/or research

Deliver research-led education that contributes to an exceptional student experience
Potential
There is huge potential for you to:

Build a unique scientific/translational and/or clinical research programme harnessing the large Leeds
breast cancer patient cohort and clinical service with excellent clinical research infrastructure and
collaborative opportunities

Raise breast cancer research in Leeds to a level of being a nationally excellent (top 5), and internationally
leading centre

Support and develop scientific/translational and/or clinical breast cancer researchers to achieve a
sustainable research base
The Successful Candidate
You will have ambition and vision for developing academic success, delivering academic excellence and a
plan for financial sustainability. You will be responsible for developing a vision for a research intensive
practice that will place the academic and clinical services at the forefront internationally; working
collaboratively to pursue a significant world-renowned portfolio of research. You will also contribute to
University and Trust initiatives for major infrastructure and programmatic funding including NIHR, Cancer
Research UK and MRC Centre bids.
You will have an international reputation in breast cancer research and a significant record of administrative
and teaching skills and experience of leading multi-professional research at internationally excellent
standards, as well as effective leadership and change management skills.
The Clinical Component (if relevant)
For clinical candidates the role will include an honorary consultant contract with Leeds Teaching Hospitals
NHS Trust, one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe serving a diverse population with state of the art
facilities at the new St James’s Institute of Oncology.
The Trust has many accolades which include it being a regional and national centre for specialist treatment,
a world renowned biomedical research facility, a leading clinical trials research unit and also the local hospital
for the Leeds community. We are a Cancer Research UK/NIHR Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and
host an NIHR Clinical Research Facility. This means the Trust has access to some of the country’s leading
clinical expertise and the most advanced medical technology in the world.
Each year the trust spends a budget of around £1 billion, providing local and specialist services for an
immediate population of 780,000 and regional specialist care for up to 5.4 million people.
LTHT is one of the largest providers of research opportunities to patients in the country. It receives around
£20 million funding for research and involves more than 12,000 patients in clinical research each year. This
means that patients benefit from some of the most cutting edge and innovative medical procedures in the
world.
The clinical component of the role will be determined by the successful applicant’s area of clinical expertise,
in negotiation and agreement with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Salary
For professorial appointments salary, which is negotiable, will be within the University Professorial range,
minimum £60,512 p.a.
For clinical professorial appointments salary will be on the New Consultant Contract (£75,249 - £101,451
p.a.) depending upon seniority within the consultant contract.
Enquiries
Do you have an established, international-quality translational research programme in any aspect of breast
cancer research?
Would you like the opportunity to lead and shape breast cancer research in Leeds?
If so we would love to hear from you. Please contact:
Professor Tim Bishop, Director Leeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology; d.t.bishop@leeds.ac.uk
Professor Chris Twelves, Head Section of Clinical Cancer Research; c.j.twelves@leeds.ac.uk.