Scientific Advisory Board
Breast Cancer Campaign's Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) is composed of prominent breast cancer experts. They are aided by the advice of hundreds of scientists and doctors to ensure that the research the charity funds is of the highest calibre and will further our knowledge of breast cancer.
More details are available on Breast Cancer Campaign's previous Scientific Advisory Board members
SAB Chair Dr Suzanne Eccles, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton Dr Sue Eccles is a Reader in Tumour Biology at the University of London, and Team Leader of Tumour Biology and Metastasis in the CRUK Centre for Cancer Therapeutics, Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), Sutton, Surrey. She is currently the Honorary Secretary of the BACR, and serves on the Executive Committee of EACR and the CRUK Biological Advisory Committee. She is the co-founder of the journal Clinical and Experimental Metastasis. She is a basic scientist interested in the cellular and molecular mechanisms of metastasis and angiogenesis. She also collaborates with both ICR and external colleagues in the preclinical development of novel anticancer agents. Particular interests are the c-erbB family of oncogenes and lymphatic metastasis. |
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Dr Ingunn Holen She has extensive experience in studies of advanced breast cancer, with particular emphasis of metastatic bone disease. Dr Holen's main research interest is the molecular mechanisms involved in tumour cell - bone cell interactions and how these can be targeted by current anti-cancer therapies. She also runs projects focussing on tumour angiogenesis and the role of circulating tumour cells in breast cancer progression. Dr Holen sits on the editorial board of several journals and has funded the European Bisphosphonate Research Network. |
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Dr Michelle Harvie Dr Michelle Harvie is a Research Dietician from the Breast Cancer Prevention Team, South Manchester Hospital Trust. She qualified as a dietician in 1991 and was awarded a PhD for studies of weight gain in cancer patients in 2000. Her current programme of work is researching optimum diet and exercise strategies to prevent breast cancer and its recurrence. She is the principal investigator on the Campaign-funded RCT to examine the effects of intermittent versus continuous energy restriction on weight loss and biomarkers of breast cancer risk. Dr Harvie is also involved in a number of intervention and epidemiological diet and cancer prevention studies amongst high-risk and population-risk women. Her scientific findings have been published in many major scientific publications and she was awarded the British Dietetic Association Rose Simmond's Award for Best Published Dietetic Research 2005, for her work on weight gain amongst breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. She recently published ‘The Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Diet’. |
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Dr Diana Harcourt Dr Diana Harcourt is a Reader in Health Psychology and Co-Director of the Centre for Appearance Research at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Her research interests focus around psychosocial aspects of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, in particular those relating to body image and appearance, breast reconstruction and DCIS |
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Dr Sarah Pinder Dr Pinder undertook her medical degree at Manchester University and, following histopathology training and research in Nottingham, became Senior Lecturer at Nottingham City Hospital Breast Unit. She was appointed to Consultant Breast Pathology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge in 2004. She serves on the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Breast Clinical Studies Group, the NICE Guideline Development Group – Early Breast Cancer, NHS BSP Pathology Coordinating Committee and the Sloane Project (NHS BSP DCIS audit) Steering Committee, amongst others. Her research interests are focused on precursor lesions and the molecular biology of breast cancer with emphasis on correlation of morphology, protein expression and molecular features. She has published approximately 140 research articles in peer-reviewed literature, over 30 invited review articles and more than 30 chapters in medical textbooks. |
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SAB Deputy Chair |
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Professor Nicola CurtinNicola works as a Professor of Experimental Cancer Therapeutics at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research School of Clinical & Laboratory Sciences Medical School, Newcastle University. Her main research interest is in the molecular pharmacology of novel drugs to treat cancer. Projects undertaken in her lab include the investigation of the role of novel inhibitors of DNA damage signalling and repair in the response to cytotoxic therapy, the therapeutic exploitation of DNA repair defects in cancer, the role of novel CDK inhibitors in the treatment of breast and prostate cancer and modulation of drug resistance. Many of these projects are translational, including laboratory studies to support clinical trials and involve close liaison with clinicians and the pharmaceutical industry. |
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Dr Andreas Makris, Mount Vernon Cancer Centre Dr Makris trained in medicine at Oxford University (pre-clinical) and Sheffield University Medical School (clinical), graduating in 1985. Further training ensued at in Clinical Oncology at Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield and The Royal Marsden Hospital, London. Appointed Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Clinical Oncology at the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, London in 1997. He is the Lead Clinician for Breast Cancer and also the Clinical Lead for Research for the Mount Vernon Network. He specialises in the treatment of breast cancer. He is a member of ASCO, RCP, RCR and ESMO. He is a member of the NCRI Breast Clinical Studies Group. His research interests are: neoadjuvant chemotherapy, prognostic / predictive markers, functional imaging, endocrine therapy and angiogenesis. He has an active research programme evaluating the use of biomarkers in determining response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
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Nicola West, Consultant Nurse in Breast Care, Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust Nicola qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1985 after undergoing first class training at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport in Gwent. All her experience has been in the surgical setting, starting off as Staff Nurse, Senior Staff Nurse and then Ward Sister by the age of 24. In 1991, she came to the University Hospital of Wales and took the post of Senior Nurse in Breast Care and has developed the service from providing basic information and support to developing a formal counselling, nurse-led service and developing the role of the Clinical Nurse Specialist. Since January 2007, Nicola has been the first consultant nurse in breast care in Wales. Nicola runs her own diagnostic clinic and also has a contract with Cardiff University as a lecturer and supervisor of pre and post-registration students. She is on the national guideline group for early breast cancer as well as many of the breast care committees influencing policy on breast cancer treatment.
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Dr Amanda Harvey, Brunel University Dr Harvey studied biochemistry at the University of Wales, Cardiff, followed by a PhD in the Institute for Cancer Studies in Sheffield. After post-doctoral research at the University of Sheffield and Royal Holloway, University of London, she was appointed as a Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences at Brunel University, West London in 2006. Her research interests focus on the development and spread of breast cancer as well as the mechanisms that are involved in the resistance of tumours to chemotherapeutic drugs.
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Dr Angela Cox, University of Sheffield Dr Cox is a Reader in Genetic Epidemiology at the Institute for Cancer Studies at the University of Sheffield. Her primary research area for the past eight years has been to examine the role of DNA damage response and apoptosis genes in common cancers including breast, prostate and colon cancer. The aim of these studies is to use a population-based genetic approach to investigate whether common inherited variants of these genes are associated with increased cancer susceptibility or with poorer survival from cancer. Dr Cox is an active member of the Breast Cancer Association Consortium.
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Dr Stewart Martin, Department of Clinical Oncology, University of Nottingham Dr Martin, an Associate Professor of Oncology, undertook his scientific training at the Gray Cancer Institute, University of London and subsequently spent a number of years working in the USA before returning to the UK to head the Translational Radiation Biology Research Group at the University of Nottingham and to develop and lead an Oncology training program (MSc) for both scientists and clinicians. His research focuses upon redox metabolism in breast cancer, the regulation of breast cancer lymphangiogenesis and lymphatic metastasis. He has various national and international breast cancer research collaborations and has served, or is currently serving, on a number of committees including Hon. Treasurer of BACR, and Secretary of the British Institute of Radiology’s Radiation and Cancer Biology Committee.
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Dr Valerie Speirs, University of Leeds Dr Speirs obtained a 2:1 in Zoology from the University of Aberdeen in 1986, her PhD in Cancer Biology from the University of Glasgow in 1990 and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2007. Her scientific career has included spells at the Hospital for Sick Children and the Research Institute in Toronto, Canada, and the universities of Liverpool and Hull. She is currently a Reader in Cellular Pathology within the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine Unit at the University of Leeds where her research focuses on oestrogen receptor biology, aspects of endocrine resistant breast cancer and developing improved in vitro models of breast cancer.
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Professor Dylan Edwards, University of East Anglia Professor Edwards obtained his PhD at University College London working on yeast cell cycle mutants and then carried out post-doctoral research in Ontario, Canada, with David Denhardt and in Oxford with John Heath working on growth factor-regulated genes in mammalian cells. He has a long-standing interest in proteases, particularly the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs). In 1989, Professor Edwards set up a lab at the University of Calgary, Canada, and in 1998 moved to the University of East Anglia to take up his current post as Chair of Cancer Studies. He is a molecular biologist interested in the functions of the ‘degradome’; the repertoire of proteases and their inhibitors that cells and tissues use during development, tissue repair and disease states. A major focus of the work is on cancer, where the group studies proteases to identify novel diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets. Professor Edwards coordinates the European Union Framework Programme 6 ‘Cancerdegradome’ Project, which involves 41 partner laboratories in 13 countries.
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Professor Rosemary O’Connor, University College, Cork Professor O’Connor is the Professor of Cell Biology at the Department of Biochemistry and BioSciences Institute, University College, Cork. She received her Ph.D in 1987 and then spent ten years as a research scientist in academia and biotechnology in Wurzburg, Philadelphi and Boston before moving to Cork in 1997. Her main research interests are in the actions of the insulin-like growth factor I receptor signalling pathway and the function of new IGF-I-regulated proteins in tumourigeneisis and cancer spread. Professor O’Connor is currently the Honorary Treasurer of the Irish Association for Cancer Research and is the Director of a new health research board-sponsored structured PhD programme in Cancer Biology hosted by University College, Cork.
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Dr Richard Kennedy, Queen’s University Belfast and Belfast City Hospital Dr Kennedy is the Vice President of Research and Development at Almac Diagnostics UK and a part-time Consultant Medical Oncologist specialising in breast cancer at Belfast City Hospital. He is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology at the Queen’s University of Belfast. Previously, he was an Instructor in Oncology at Harvard Medical School, USA, where he identified novel biomarkers and drug targets for cancer treatment. Dr Kennedy continues to be interested in the area of predictive biomarkers and has published several papers on this subject. He also acts a peer reviewer for several high impact journals in the areas of DNA repair and biomarker development.
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Professor Shirley Hodgson, St. George's, University of London Professor Hodgson began to work in the field of genetics at Guy's Hospital, London, in the 1980s after training as a Paediatrician and General Practitioner. She did her DM in the genetics of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and then took up a registrar post in clinical genetics at Guy's. She went on the work as a Consultant Clinical Geneticist at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and then back to Guy's to become Reader in clinical genetics at GKT. Professor Hodgson became interested in cancer genetics from 1989 and ran the Cancer Genetics Service for the SE Thames Regional Genetics Service 1990 - 2003 when she moved to a Chair in Cancer Genetics at St. George's, University of London. She now runs the SW Thames Cancer Genetics Service. She also ran the Family History Clinic at St. Mark's Hospital for the first half of the 1990s. She has received grant support from CR-UK,in particular, for translational research in cancer genetics, focusing on breast and colorectal cancer, and is now principal investigator of a randomised study of the Mirena intrauterine system for reducing the risk of developing endometrial cancer in women with Lynch Syndrome. She has co-authored several books on clinical cancer genetics, and has an active interest in international collaboration in the discipline.
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Dr John Maher, King’s College London John Maher trained in Medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, and then undertook general medical training in Ireland. He completed his PhD in 1995 at Hammersmith Hospital before undertaking higher specialist training in Immunology at King’s College Hospital. In 1997, he obtained a clinician scientist fellowship (based at King’s College London and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) during which period he developed his interest in genetic approaches to cancer immunotherapy. He completed clinical training and gained entry to the GMC specialist register in immunology in 2003. Thereafter, he undertook a senior clinician scientist research fellowship which was focussed on the use of genetically retargeted T-lymphocytes for immunotherapy of breast and other cancers. This year, he was appointed as a senior lecturer and honorary consultant in immunology at King’s College London and has built a group of dedicated researchers who are developing diverse immunotherapeutic approaches for breast and other tumour types. |
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Professor Steven D Heys |
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Dr John Stingl Dr Stingl obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Anatomy at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he studied epithelial progenitors in the human mammary gland. His postdoctoral work was done in the laboratories of Connie Eaves (Terry Fox Laboratory, British Columbia Cancer Research Centre) and Christine Watson (Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge), where he applied the principles used to study haematopoietic stem cells to study mammary stem cells. In January 2008 John started his own research group at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute and the focus of his work continues to be mammary stem cell biology and breast cancer. |
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Dr Michael Themis Dr Themis moved to Brunel University in 2006 to establish his research group following 10 years research at Imperial College London where he still holds and honorary lectureship. Dr Themis lectures undergraduate and postgraduate students at Brunel and Imperial College London in genetics, related technologies and Gene Therapy. Dr Themis’ research is primarily aimed at gene transfer and associated genotoxicity. He has over 14 years research experience in mammalian gene expression, gene transfer vector and molecular biology technologies. This research experience has been applied to gene therapy of genetic diseases predominantly at the foetal and neonatal stages of development and via gene supplementation of stem cells. His current work aims to understand the basis of oncogenesis in mice using this model in order to provide information on safe vector design and the discovery of novel cancer genes. |
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Professor Stephen Duffy A Professor of cancer screening at the Centre for Epidemiology, Mathematics and Statistics at Queen Mary University of London, his research interests focus on cancer epidemiology, prevention and screening. |
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Dr Paul Pharoah Dr Pharoah is a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at Strangeways Research Laboratory, University of Cambridge. Dr Pharoah is interested in the architecture of genetic susceptibility to common cancers (primarily breast, ovarian and colorectal). He is also interested in understanding how germline genetic variation influences disease heterogeneity and heterogeneity in the clinical outcomes of cancer. |
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Professor Kevin Brindle Professor Brindle is a professor in the department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. His research group are developing novel agents for MR and radionuclide imaging that could be used in the clinic to detect early indications of tumour cell death after treatment. |
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