Our Research Grants Committee

Professor Sue Clark MD FRCS(Gen Surg) EBSQ(Coloproctology) trained at the University of Cambridge, St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School and in the South West Thames Region, as well as undertaking a period of full time research as an Imperial Cancer Research Fund fellow.

She is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at St Mark’s Hospital, Harrow, UK and Professor of Practice (Colorectal Surgery) at Imperial College, London. Additional roles include Director of the St Mark’s Hospital Polyposis Registry, Administrative Officer of the International Society for Gastrointestinal Hereditary Tumours, Royal College of Surgeons of England Genomics Champion and Editor of Colorectal Disease.

She was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England Commission on the Future of Surgery. Her main clinical and research interests are colorectal cancer genetics, polyposis syndromes, colorectal cancer biology and ileoanal pouch dysfunction.

Nicola Fearnhead was President of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain & Ireland in 2019/20

She has been a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge since 2006. She studied medicine at Pembroke College, Cambridge and Merton College, Oxford where she was a Rhodes Scholar. Surgical training was undertaken in Bristol and Oxford followed by an International Fellowship in Advanced Colorectal Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio during 2005.

Mohammad Ilyas is Professor of Pathology at the University of Nottingham. His research encompasses both basic science and translational research. His areas of interest include the molecular pathology of cancer (especially the roles of Wnt signalling, CD24 and TNS4 in tumourigenesis), liquid biopsy testing for cancer surveillance and digital pathology.

Simon works at the Quadram Institute and the Norwich Medical School at the University East Anglia to develop and lead a multidisciplinary Gut Biology and Microbiology Research Programme.

He completed postgraduate work at the Medical Research Council’s Clinical Research Centre then undertook postdoctoral work at New York University School of Medicine and Yale University prior to obtaining a faculty position at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and developing a research programme focusing on gut biology and immunology. Simon returned to the UK and the University of Leeds to develop a new programme of research focusing on commensal gut bacteria (the microbiota) leading to the development of a Bacteroides drug delivery technology platform for new treatments for GI-related diseases.

Simon relocated to the Quadram Institute and the Norwich Medical School at the University East Anglia to develop and lead a multidisciplinary Gut Biology and Microbiology Research Programme. A current research focus is using microbiota-derived products and microvesicles for boosting natural immunity in at-risk individuals, and for the delivery of therapeutic proteins and vaccine antigens to mucosal sites to treat or prevent autoimmune – or infection-related diseases that target the GI-tract and other organ systems.

Also of interest is the role of the microbiota in mental health and neurodegenerative diseases (the gut-microbiota-brain axis) which includes the MOTION study, a population based longitudinal study in healthy ageing, investigating the relationship between age-associated changes in the intestinal microbiota and declining cognitive function.

Simon Leedham is a Professor of Gastroenterology and a Wellcome Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford. He is also the Director of the Oxford Centre for Personalised Medicine. His research is into the morphogenic signaling pathways that control the intestinal stem cell in homeostasis, regeneration, and cancer, and he has published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers in journals that include Nature Medicine, Nature Genetics, Gastroenterology and Gut. Simon’s research has been recognised by the United European Gastroenterology Rising Star award in 2010, the British Society of Gastroenterology Francis Avery Jones research prize in 2015, and the CRUK future leaders prize in 2017.

Dr Philip Woodland is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at the Royal London Hospital and an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Upper GI Disease at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. He runs a specialist oesophageal service, and has an active program of translational and clinical research into oesophageal disorders including gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, oesophageal motility disorders and eosinophilic oesophagitis.

Marilena is the Deputy Director of the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science (SIS) at UCL and Head of the SIS Department at the Royal Free campus and Deputy Director of the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science (SIS) at UCL; and Head of the SIS Department at the Royal Free Campus.

After her undergraduate training in Biochemistry (McMasters University, Canada), she moved to the University of Southampton where she obtained her PhD in Solid Tumour Biology and Pharmacology and became lead clinical scientist at the University of Southampton/NHS. She moved to UCL to the academic department of Surgery, and became Head of Department in 2013.

Marilena uses nanotechnology tools in her cancer pharmacology research.  Her main focus has been in the field of novel imaging and targeted therapeutics in solid tumours, mainly colorectal cancer, with a focus on the role of the fibrotic cancer stroma. Marilena co-invented tumouroids, 3D in vitro cultures of cancer which mimic the composition and architecture of solid tumours. Tumouroids are being developed as platforms for therapeutics and for stratified medicine.

Marilena is co-Founder and Director of the MSc in Nanotechnology and Regenerative Medicine and the MSc in Surgical and Interventional Sciences.

Consultant Colorectal Surgeon and Professor of Surgery at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Andy graduated from Birmingham University and completed his PhD at the Medical Research Council’s (MRC), National Institute for Medical Research. He has worked at the MRC’s Clinical Research Unit, the University of Texas Southwestern and Imperial College. He joined Queen Mary University in 2007, his research interests lie in the area of immune regulation in the human intestine, focussing on both health and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

Austin is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at the University of Nottingham

Dale Vimalachandran is a consultant colorectal surgeon at the Countess of Chester. He is the Northwest Coast SRG lead for surgery and also sits on the NCRI colorectal surgery subgroup and ACPGBI research and audit committees.

He has interests in all aspects of colorectal research and currently runs a translational research programme in locally advanced rectal cancer at the University of Liverpool. He is the local PI in Chester for a number of surgical and oncology studies and is the Chief Investigator of two portfolio studies along with running an international audit. He is a member of the editorial advisory board for Colorectal Disease and also helps write the ACPGBI of the month.

Dale also chairs the DMC and TSC for a number of NIHR surgical studies and is a very keen advocate of trainee led clinical research and has helped establish the regional INSPIRE trainee research programme in the Northwest.

Gabby is a Professor of Professional Development in Health Sciences at the UEA School of Health Sciences and honorary clinical nurse specialist in stoma care at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Gabby is the previous Chair of the Association of Coloproctology Nurses and has interest and experience in qualitative research, which she teaches across all academic levels.

Azmina is an independent patient representative with over a decade of experience partnering in clinical research, health services research, audit and service improvement within the fields of colorectal surgery and gastroenterology.

She was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease aged 10, and subsequently with surveillance-detected high grade dysplasia aged 25. She lives with a permanent ileostomy further to panproctocolectomy surgery aged 25.

Azmina presently co-chairs the Public and Patient Group (PPG) of the CRUK Bowel Cancer Intelligence Hub programme and serves on American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Expert Panels for Resource Stratified Guidelines on Colorectal Cancer.

Her most recent collaborations include the National Audit of Small Bowel Obstruction (NASBO), International Consensus on Low Anterior Resection Syndrome (LARS), NIHR GlobalSurg international surgical trials collaborative, LaCeS (emergency laparoscopic vs open abdominal surgery randomized controlled trial; and IBD-BOOST (NIHR-funded programme of interventional studies in Inflammatory Bowel Disease).

Azmina was previously a Trustee of the Bowel Disease Research Foundation, a Trustee of Crohn’s and Colitis UK and a member of the Patient Liaison Group of the ACPGBI.

Panchali is a surgical registrar in the East Midlands. Panchali has an interest in translational research and she is completing a MD in Leicester on the use of circulating tumour DNAs in colorectal cancer surveillance.”

Catherine Boereboom joined the Trustees of the Bowel Disease Research Foundation, as President of the Dukes Club for colorectal surgery trainees, in 2013 and has worked with the BDRF & now BRUK ever since.

Catherine trained in the East Midlands and completed a PhD in preoperative exercise for colorectal cancer patients.

Catherine works at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham with a specialist interest in pelvic floor disorders.

Jim Tiernan is Chair of the ACPGBI Research and Audit Committee. He is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at the John Goligher Unit in Leeds and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Surgery at the University of Leeds.

He undertook his surgical training throughout Yorkshire, during which he completed a PhD in nanobiotechnology, followed by a fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, USA.  His clinical interests include advanced/recurrent colorectal cancer and complex inflammatory bowel disease. He is also the NIHR CRN specialty lead for surgery in Yorkshire & Humber.

Dr Michael Crichton is an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Heriot-Watt University where he runs the Soft Tissue and Biomedical Devices Laboratory. His research interests lie in understanding how disease changes the material behaviour of biological tissues, and how we use these for innovative medical technologies. Michael’s background includes a range of medical device engineering projects in both academia and industry.  His research interests include funding to research bowel incontinence sensors and chronic wound monitors, and he loves the challenges and benefits from multidisciplinary research.

Lesley Dibley is Professor of Qualitative Nursing Research at the University of Greenwich, London. She is trained in both adult and children’s nursing and has extensive clinical practice and higher education experience. Lesley has completed several mixed methods and qualitative research studies, including her PhD (2014, King’s College London) addressing aspects of patients’ experiences of living with chronic illness, particularly inflammatory bowel disease. Her work has contributed to understanding the complex experiences of patients with IBD around incontinence, stomas and decision-making about treatment options.
Lesley teaches qualitative methodologies to students at all levels, although her preferred methodology is hermeneutic phenomenology; she has recently led an international team of phenomenologists in the authorship of a new handbook to guide students using the method. Lesley has over 40 publications, and has delivered numerous local, national and international conference presentations. She has an active research profile and is passionate about bringing other clinicians – especially specialist nurses – into research, through inviting clinical colleagues to collaborate with her.

Trevor Graham is professor of cancer evolution at the Barts Cancer Institute, QMUL, where he is also deputy lead of the Centre for Genomics and Computational Biology and co-lead of the Cancer Evolution theme of the CRUK City of London Major Centre. Trevor’s research focuses on understanding the genetic, epigenetic and microenvironmental changes in the colon during evolution from healthy tissue to malignant disease and in response to therapy. He has particular expertise in cancer genomics and mathematical and statistical modelling. Trevor’s lab is supported by programmatic funding from CRUK, the Wellcome Trust and the US National Institute of Health.

James Kinross is a Senior Lecturer in Colorectal Surgery and a Consultant Surgeon at Imperial College London. His clinical interest is in minimally invasive and robotic surgery for colorectal cancer. He was an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Surgery and an Ethicon Laparoscopic Fellow in Colorectal Surgery. He was awarded a Royal College of Surgeons of England training fellowship during his PhD on the gut microbiome and he was funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences as an early stage lecturer. He is a visiting Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. He is currently funded by CRUK, DASA, Horizon 2020 and the EPSRC. He performs translational research into a diverse set of research themes such as digital surgery, robotics, computational and systems biology in surgery and the gut microbiome. He is also funded by the NIHR to perform intra-operative mass spectrometry (known as Real-time Electrospray Ionisation Mass Spectrometry or REIMS) for improving precision in the surgical treatment of colorectal cancer.

After more than 30 years working at St Mark’s Hospital London, Judith moved on to pursue personal interests.  At St Mark’s she ran the Academic Institute where the focus was on research and education in the field of bowel disease.  Prior to this she spent ten years in The St Mark’s Polyposis Registry.

In 2018, Judith was diagnosed with bowel cancer and experienced life as a patient.

Tamsin is an independent patient representative with personal experience of Crohn’s disease and bowel cancer, diagnosed shortly after the birth of her young son. In professional life, she worked in Medical Education, convening meetings of international medical experts to discuss novel treatment approaches.

Tamsin leads a campaign team drawn from CRUK, Brainstrust and Oxford University to empower and inform patients, specifically around the opportunity to consent to the use of resected tissues for research. The project also seeks to improve opportunities for research groups to access donated tissues for studies of both rare and more common cancers, with the hope of enriching and accelerating research.

Tamsin served as the patient co-chair of the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Panel and as the Panel’s liaison with the Oxford Gastroenterology and Mucosal Immunity Theme leads 2019-2020. This panel supports researchers to get the most scientific value from PPI, as well as translating this effectively for patient benefit.