I am an Academic clinical fellow in the urology department at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Therefore I spend some time training to be a urological surgeon and the rest undertaking clinical research training with the view to becoming a clinical academic in the future. I have won clinical research grants from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, The Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust and the Cambridge Cancer Centre to support my PhD training in the Rosenfeld lab. I will use this period of research training to gain valuable skills and expertise ‘out of programme’ to my clinical training as a doctor. On completion of my research training, I plan to return to clinical duties and The Eastern NHS Deanery have committed to continue support for my higher surgical training.

During my PhD I intend to investigate ctDNA as a biomarker in the blood and urine of prostate and bladder cancer patients. Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer and bladder cancer is the fourth. Each year in the UK, 44,000 people are diagnosed with one of these diseases. Both cancers require long periods of difficult monitoring. For prostate cancer PSA tests (measuring prostate- specific antigen) can be inaccurate and invasive biospies do not always identify imore indolent forms of prostate cancer from aggressive ones. For bladder cancer repeated cystoscopies (telescopic examination of the bladder) are required to monitor patients with bladder cancer due to its high recurrence rate, which is both invasive and unpleasant. I hope that in the future, ctDNA analysis could help diagnose aggressive prostate cancer from DNA profiling and monitoring of patients with prostate cancer and detect recurrence without the need for invasive cystoscopies for patients with bladder cancer.

During my free time, I enjoy deep sea diving, travelling, keeping fit and especially spending time with my family.