Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald is an MRC Programme Leader at the MRC Cancer Unit, and an Honorary Consultant in Gastroenterology and General Medicine at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. She also holds a personal chair in Cancer Prevention at the University of Cambridge. 

Prof Fitzgerald was awarded the prestigious Westminster medal and prize for her first proof of concept work on the Cytosponge™ and associated assays for diagnosing Barrett’s oesophagus in 2004. This also received an NHS Innovation prize in 2011. She received a Lister Prize Fellowship in 2008, and in 2013 Prof Fitzgerald was awarded an NIHR Research Professorship to facilitate translational research for patient benefit. Prof Fitzgerald currently holds an NIHR Research Professorship, and in 2013 was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Prof Fitzgerald has a plethora of teaching experience and is a Member of the Institute of Learning and Teaching. She is Director of Medical Studies for Trinity College Cambridge, and is involved with undergraduate and clinical teaching. Prof Fitzgerald is committed to bringing research advances into clinical practice and inspiring other researchers to do likewise.

Visit the Fitzgerald lab group website and follow them on Twitter.
 

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Professor Peter Sasieni is Academic Director of King's Clinical Trials Unit and Professor of Cancer Prevention. He leads the Cancer Prevention Group which takes a population perspective to research on cancer screening, early detection, and prevention. The group has sub-teams in behavioural sciences, clinical trials, experimental epidemiology, observational epidemiology and statistics.

Prof Sasieni read mathematics at Cambridge University and a PhD in biostatistics from the University of Washington. He did his post-doctoral training at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (later Cancer Research UK (CRUK)) in Jack Cuzick's group. The group moved to the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine at Queen Mary University of London where Prof Sasieni became Professor of Cancer Epidemiology & Biostatistics. He joined KCL in 2017. Prof Sasieni has a CRUK programme grant in cancer screening and statistics, is Director of the CRUK KCL Cancer Prevention Trials Unit, and Vice Director of the NIHR Policy Research Unit on Cancer, Awareness, Screening and Early Diagnosis.
 

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Dr Nick Swart is a Health Economist at University College London. His research focus is on applied health research, and his PhD is on the economics of clinical audit. He has experience in health technology appraisal, statistical analysis, multi-disciplinary team work, and working with large data sets. He has published peer-reviewed papers and reports for national organisations such as NICE and NIHR. He particularly enjoys designing economic evaluations that are methodologically challenging, especially when applied to real-world scenarios that rarely straightforward.
 

Mrs Irene Debiram-Beecham is a Senior Research Sister at the MRC Research Centre CRUK Cambridge Institute, and was the clinical coordinator for the BEST3 Trial. Her current research areas are early detection and aerodigestive cancers.
 

Dr Fiona Walter leads the Cancer Group in the Primary Care Unit, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, at the University of Cambridge. The Cancer Group’s objective is to deliver world-class research focusing on the cancer pathway, from prevention, screening, early detection and diagnostics to post-treatment care; we also focus on translating genetics advances into primary care. Her research expertise lies across the primary care research spectrum and includes randomised controlled trials, cohort studies and systematic reviews; she has a particular interest in patient experiences and qualitative and mixed methods approaches.

She has won research grants totalling more than £25 million in the UK and AU$5 million in Australia, and published over 180 peer reviewed articles including in Nature, Lancet, BMJ and JAMA. Fiona co-leads the CanTest Collaborative, Cancer Research UK’s first Catalyst award, aiming to accelerate progress towards improving cancer outcomes by focussing on the transformative implementation in primary care of tests to support early detection of cancer. She is also co-investigator on the £5m NIHR Policy Research Unit in Cancer Awareness, Screening and Early Diagnosis, led by Prof Stephen Duffy (QMUL).

Current UK leadership roles include membership of Cancer Research UK’s Early Detection Committee and Cambridge Cancer Centre’s Early Detection Committee. Her international work is marked by an honorary academic role at the University of Melbourne, Australia, where she contributes to parallel programmes of work on improving outcomes for cancer patients. She also co-leads research in South Africa and Uganda, and contribute to research in Europe (Denmark, the Netherlands) and the US. Her educational and capacity building work is marked by the setting up and delivery of the CanTest International School in Cancer Detection Research in Primary Care, and her role as Training Lead for Cambridge in the NIHR School for Primary Care Research.

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Dr Richard Roope is the Lead GP Trainer at CRUK. Experienced Leader with a demonstrated history of working in the medical practice industry, particularly in the areas of prevention and early diagnosis of cancer together with delivery of cancer care . Skilled in Public Speaking, Healthcare Management, Healthcare, and Cancer. Strong professional with a Master of Science (MSc) focused in Occupational Medicine from The University of Manchester and degrees in Medicine (MBBS, London University) and Psychology (MA, Cambridge University).
 

Mrs Liz Chipchase is a retired scientist from Cambridge. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge University. She is backing the CRUK ‘Right Now’ campaign to raise awareness of the importance of research.

 

Dr Thomas Round is a General Practitioner in Tower Hamlets, London, for the Bromley by Bow Health Partnership at XX Place Surgery.

National Institute for Health Research Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Primary Care and Public Health Medicine at Kings College London. Research interests in the field of early cancer diagnosis in primary care. Masters in Public Health module co-lead.

Royal College of General Practitioners, Essential Knowledge Updates Development fellow. Developing high quality evidence based e-learning updates for GP's continuing professional development.
 

Dr Maria O’Donovan is a Consultant Histopathologist in the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Department of Histopathology.

 

Dr Marnix Jansen is based at University College London, Dr Marnix Jansen dedicates his time to two ambitious projects. He’s collecting samples taken from patients with a condition called Barrett’s oesophagus, which can raise the risk of oesophageal cancer. He wants to find out how certain cells in Barrett’s oesophagus change over time and drive the condition to become cancerous. He’s also looking at the genetics of early oesophageal cancer to find out which gene faults fuel the disease.

Through this research, Dr Jansen hopes to gain new insight into how oesophageal cancer develops and progresses. This could help doctors better understand the risk of cancer for people with Barrett’s oesophagus, and also how likely the disease is to worsen or come back in people diagnosed with early-stage oesophageal cancer.

Dr Jansen’s other work focuses on the immune system’s role in cancer. Working with Professor Daniel Alexander and Dr Yinyin Yuan, he’s using computers and artificial intelligence to build 3D reconstructions of how tumour cells and immune cells interact. By piecing together hundreds of tissue samples, he’ll map the landscape of immune cells in the cancer’s environment, and find out which patterns of cells could predict which patients are likely to respond to immunotherapy treatment. A tailored approach like this could make a real difference for immunotherapy, which has proven highly successful for some patients but hasn’t worked for others.

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Mr Marcel Gehrung is a scientist and serial entrepreneur with a demonstrated experience in leadership, fundraising, high-growth business management, and translational science. CEO and co-founder at Cyted, a company developing digital diagnostic infrastructure to drive the earlier detection of disease.
Passionate about clinical questions, medical innovations, and digital technologies.
 

Siobhan Campbell is a Primary Care Research Nurse and part of the Eastern Clinical Research Network. Her role in the BEST3 Trial was a part of an essential team of CRN nurses who trained practice nurses in the Cytosponge technique and delivered the trial on the front-line.
 

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Nicky Todd is a Clinical Research Nurse at the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She is part of the North East and North Cumbria Clinical Research Network. Her role in the BEST3 Trial was a part of an essential team of CRN nurses who trained practice nurses in the Cytosponge technique and delivered the trial on the front-line.
 

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Marie Corcoran is a Primary Care Research Nurse and part of the Eastern Clinical Research Network. Her role in the BEST3 Trial was a part of an essential team of CRN nurses who trained practice nurses in the Cytosponge technique and delivered the trial on the front-line.
 

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Lydia Owen is a Primary Care Research Nurse in the Thames Valley and South Midlands Clinical Research Network. Her role in the BEST3 Trial was a part of an essential team of CRN nurses who trained practice nurses in the Cytosponge technique and delivered the trial on the front-line.
 

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Jill Ducker is a Clinical Research Nurse at the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She is part of the North East and North Cumbria Clinical Research Network. Her role in the BEST3 Trial was a part of an essential team of CRN nurses who trained practice nurses in the Cytosponge technique and delivered the trial on the front-line.
 

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Cancer Research UK is a cancer research and awareness charity in the UK, formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Its aim is to reduce the number of deaths from cancer. As the world's largest independent cancer research charity it conducts research into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
Research activities are carried out in institutes, universities and hospitals across the UK, both by the charity's own employees and by its grant-funded researchers. It also provides information about cancer and runs campaigns aimed at raising awareness of the disease and influencing public policy.