Transforming Cancer Care: UCL Research Innovations and Discoveries
06 February 2025, 5:00 pm–6:00 pm
To mark World Cancer Day 2025, our UCL panellists discuss some of the latest cancer research in their respective fields.
This event is free.
UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences Events Team
At this virtual event we will spotlight some of the transformational work taking place across UCL and look to the future with new and different approaches to cancer. Including cutting-edge CAR-T cell therapies, the role of ultra-processed foods in cancer risk, to AI-driven radiotherapy advancements and understanding the biology of brain cancer. Our panel will explore the science behind the discoveries.
This panel event will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.
- Jane Ganeshalingam, MBPhD Student in the UCL Stem Cell Laboratory - Chair
- Paul Maciocia, Clinical Senior Research Fellow and Consultant Haematologist
- Simona Parrinello, Professor of Neuro-oncology
- Kate Ricketts, Associate Professor of Cancer Physics and Radiotherapy Physicist
- Chris van Tulleken, Associate Professor and Infectious Diseases Clinician
- This event will take place online. A link to the event will be sent to you prior to the event start time
- Live captioning is available for this event
- We aim to make our events as inclusive as possible. If you have any accessibility requirements or enquiries that are not covered in this profile, please contact the events team at email@example.com. Please allow as much time as possible before the event to ensure we can make reasonable adjustments
About the Speakers
MBPhD Student in the UCL Stem Cell Laboratory
Jane is an MBPhD student at UCL researching childhood ETV6::RUNX1-positive B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia using induced pluripotent stem cells and genetic engineering techniques. She started medical school at UCL in 2015 and, in 2017 as part of her iBSc in Physiology, conducted a research project exploring KRAS inhibition in colorectal cancer. Pursuing an interest in research, she transferred onto the MBPhD programme and, in 2019, interrupted medical school to undertake an integrated PhD in paediatric leukaemia at the UCL Cancer Institute.
Clinical Senior Research Fellow and Consultant Haematologist
Dr Paul Maciocia is a consultant haematologist and clinician scientist specialising in chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy for cancer. He undertook training in medicine and pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh, followed by clinical training in medicine and haematology in Edinburgh, Bristol/ Bath, Zambia and London. He completed his PhD in CAR-T cell therapy for T cell lymphoma in the laboratory of Dr Martin Pule at UCL, in 2017, and completed clinical training in 2019. He now sees patients in the CAR-T clinic at UCLH while running a laboratory group based at UCL Cancer Institute. Dr Maciocia is currently funded by Cancer Research UK as a clinician scientist fellow.
Professor of Neuro-oncology
Prof Simona Parrinello is professor of neuro-oncology at the UCL Cancer Institute, which she joined in 2018. She also leads the Samantha Dickson brain cancer unit and co-leads the CRUK Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence. Professor Parrinello’s research focuses on adult neurogenesis and brain cancer. In particular, her group studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control neural stem cell behavior and how these mechanisms become deregulated to drive tumourigenesis in glioblastoma, with a focus on the role of the microenvironment. She carried out her postdoctoral training at the UCL Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology as an EMBO and Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow and received her PhD from the University of California, at Berkeley.
Associate Professor of Cancer Physics and Radiotherapy Physicist
Dr Kate Ricketts is Associate Professor of Cancer Physics at UCL and she is an NHS clinically accredited Radiotherapy Physicist. She obtained a BA in Physical Natural Sciences from Cambridge University in 2004, IPEM NHS Part 1 Training in Medical Physics (Diagnostic Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy) at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and MSc in Radiation Physics from UCL in 2008, continuing with a PhD in Nanoparticles for Tumour Diagnostics from UCL awarded in 2011. She commenced a lectureship at UCL Division of Surgery and Interventional Science in 2013, making Associate Professor in 2016. She currently works at the interface of radiation physics, AI and cancer biology towards improving patient response to radiotherapy treatment.
Chris van Tulleken
Associate Professor and Infectious Diseases Clinician
Chris van Tulleken is an infectious diseases doctor in at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London. He trained in medicine at Oxford University, has a PhD in molecular virology from University College London where he is an Associate Professor and where his research focuses on how corporations affect human health, especially in the context of nutrition. He works closely with UNICEF and the World Health Organization in this area.
His book Ultra-Processed People was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller.
He is one of the BBC’s leading science broadcasters on television and radio for children and adults.