People

The Jack Birch Unit brings together a diverse community of cancer researchers and students.

Together, we are working to better understand the microenvironment within epithelial cancers, with the goal of leveraging a real-world impact on patients.

	Professor Will Brackenbury, Director - My research focuses on how the ionic (chemical) microenvironment of solid tumours sustains their growth and spread. Solid tumours often have high levels of sodium, in addition to being acidotic and hypoxic, and these features present new treatment opportunities.
	Dr Simon Baker - The origins of bladder cancer remain unknown and my research seeks to unravel this mystery using laboratory models of normal human tissues given relevant cancer-causing exposures. In recent years, we have been particularly interested in the role of BK polyomavirus in driving the DNA mutations that initiate bladder cancers.
	Professor Dimitris Lagos - Our research bridges RNA medicine and immunology. We study RNA-driven mechanisms of immune gene regulation in immune cells and their targets, including cancer cells.
	Dr Vicki Jennings - My research focuses on exploring strategies to harness the immune system to recognise and destroy tumour cells, for example, oncolytic virotherapy, as well as investigating the mechanisms underlying tumour-induced immune tolerance.
	Dr Andrew Mason - My research focuses on using sequencing data to better match bladder cancer patients to a therapy in the clinic. My work profiles both cancer and healthy bladder to bring biological insight to machine learning-based stratification.