My current role
I currently co-lead the East of England service for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), seeing patients from across the region and contributing to numerous observational and interventional clinical trials in HCC.
Previous history
My research interests centre around the diseased liver microenvironment and why this drives carcinogenesis. I completed my PhD in Cambridge investigating the presence and functionality of senescent immune cells in the liver microenvironment in chronic viral hepatitis infection after liver transplantation, and their relationship to clinical outcomes.
During post-doctoral fellowships at the CRUK Cambridge Institute, I investigated mechanisms of senescence secretome control. Senescent cells have been identified in various pre-malignant conditions, where they have profound and sometimes contrasting effects upon their environment through their secretome. However, the pathways controlling this differential functionality in the senescence secretome were previously unclear. I defined the role of NOTCH1 and COX2 in the modulation of both secretome composition and long-term tumorigenesis in the liver microenvironment.
More recently I have defined the genomic consequences of chronic liver disease, allowing a deeper understanding of the burden of DNA damage and the clonal dynamics of cirrhotic nodules in CLD as well as an understanding of the cancerisation field effect that exists in CLD. These findings have the potential to be disruptive to our understanding of the pathogenesis of CLD, translate into novel biomarkers of prognosis in CLD and potentially actionable therapeutic targets.