Speakers

Clare Verrill is an Associate Professor of Pathology in the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford and an Honorary Urological Pathology Consultant at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Clare’s research interests are in multi-modal and digital pathology and image analysis in cancer, primarily testis and prostate. She has been involved in setting international standards for uropathology practice and prostate WGS.  As well as her academic group (The Verrill Pathology Group)  Clare’s diverse roles include NIHR BRC 3 Sub-Theme lead for experimental pathology,  CM-Path Workstream 4 Lead (Technology and Informatics),  and RCPath Thames Valley Regional College Advisor .

Professor Verrill is co-lead of the PathLAKE Oxford consortium.  The Oxford team is a unique multi-disciplinary team which provides knowledge, skills and expertise in prostate pathology, image analysis and AI.  https://www.pathlake.org/our-team/

Liz Soilleux is a Cambridge University Senior Lecturer in the Dept of Pathology, a visiting researcher at Oxford University and the director of studies for preclinical medicine and a teaching fellow in pathology at Churchill College, Cambridge. She is also the molecular Pathology Lead for the East Midlands and East of England Genomic Laboratory Hub. She undertakes clinical work in haematopathology, molecular diagnostics and autopsy pathology. She completed undergraduate and clinical training in Cambridge, including a PhD in molecular immunology. Towards the end of her postgraduate training, she moved to Oxford to take up the clinical lectureship in Cellular Pathology, prior to being appointed as a substantive consultant in Oxford in 2006.  She returned to Cambridge in 2017.

Her research interests are centred on immunology, particularly novel molecular approaches to T-cells with potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications, funded by grants from a range of organisations, including the Medical Research Council, Coeliac UK, Cancer Research UK, Innovate UK and various industrial partners. She plays a major role in teaching at both undergraduate and clinical student level in Cambridge and formerly ran parts of the Oxford Laboratory Medicine (clinical) course. For many years she taught on the Oxford FRCPath course and she was a regular lecturer at the PathSoc Winter School for trainee pathologists.  She has recently completed the Cambridge University Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Education. She was formerly the Education Subcommittee Chair of the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland and remains an active member of the committee. She is an author of both the NICE Guidelines for Haematological Malignancy and the NICE Quality Standards for Haematological Malignancy.

Prof Rakha is a Professor of Breast Pathology and Honorary Consultant Pathologist at the University of Nottingham (UoN) and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK.

Prof Rakha is medically qualified and gained master (MSc pathology) and MD in Pathology (by examination), PhD in molecular pathology (Breast cancer) from UoN and obtained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists by examination. He is the leading member of the multi-disciplinary Nottingham Breast Research Group at UoN.

He is a member of The National Coordinating Committee of Breast Pathology (BIG18), European Working Group for Breast Screening Pathology, the International Society of Breast Pathology, The British Association of Breast Pathology, the NHSBSP Research Advisory Committee, and International Breast Pathology Group. Prof Rakha is the co-chair of the UK EQA breast pathology Scheme, and organises the National Nottingham Breast Pathology Masterclass which is an annual course run in Nottingham, UK and Bologna Italy (http://nottinghambreastpathologymasterclass.com/) .

He published more than 350 publications, co-authored 25 book chapters in addition to 11 chapter in the recent 5th ed. of the WHO Blue book of breast tumours and he runs the national and international referral service of breast pathology consultation cases in Nottingham.

Dr Rodriguez-Justo is a consultant in Gastrointestinal Pathology and Haematopathology at University College London. Manuel was the clinical lead for the 100K Genomes project at ULCH and is involved in the reconfiguration of genomics hubs in North London. As Clinical Lead in Cellular Pathology he has implemented molecular pathways in Gastrointestinal cancers, particularly in colorectal cancer. 

Dr Rodriquez-Justo’s research focuses in tumour hetererogeneity studies on known and discovered biomarker signatures, evaluation of lead candidate antibody and small molecule based therapeutics, validation of genomic and proteomic signatures using qPCR (genomic), immunohistochemistry, copy number variation/amplification (in situ hybridisation), genomic instability (DNA ploidy), genomic and proteomic target quantification using digital image analysis and profiling.

Dr Rodriguez-Justo has published more than 130 peer-reviewed papers, several reviews and book chapters. Manuel is the current lead for the “Prevention, Early detection, Diagnosis and Prognosis” subcommittee NCRI scientific committee 2020

Manuel Salto-Tellez (MD-LMS, FRCPath, FRCPI) is the Professor of Molecular Pathology and the Director of the Precision Medicine Centre at Queen’s University Belfast, as well as the Professor of Integrated Pathology, Division of Molecular Pathology at The Institute of Cancer Research in London. He is also an NHS consultant pathologist.

Professor Manuel Salto-Tellez is author or co-author of more than 300 internationally peer-reviewed articles in translational science, molecular pathology and diagnostics, including work published in NEJM, Nature Medicine, Gastroenterology, FASEB, EMBO, Cancer Research and Clinical Cancer Research, among others. He has published a similar number of abstracts in international conferences and is editor or contributor to some of the key textbooks of pathology and oncology. Professor Salto-Tellez studied Medicine in Spain (Oviedo), Germany (Aachen) and The Netherlands (Leiden). He specialized in Histopathology in the UK (Edinburgh and London) and in Molecular Pathology in USA (Philadelphia). Manuel is the Chair of the Mol Path Subcommittee of the Pathological Society of GB & Ireland; member of the Cancer Research UK New Agents Committee, member of the NICE Guideline Committee member for Colorectal Cancer; and member of the National Cancer Research Institute’s Strategy Advisory Group, among other committees.

Manuel holds more than £21M in competitive grant funding.

Professor Tim Helliwell graduated in medicine at the University of Cambridge and has been a Consultant Histopathologist at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital (appointed in 1984) and is Honorary Professor of Pathology, University of Liverpool..

As a Consultant Histopathologist I have been lead histopathologist for head and neck, thyroid, bone and soft tissue pathology. I am author or co-author of 139 peer reviewed publications and have contributed to chapters of the current revision of the WHO Classification of Tumours of the Head and Neck and a range of guidelines published by the Royal College of Pathologists. ). I was an elected member of Council of the Royal College of Pathologists (2012-2014), leading on quality and performance indicators, and from 2014-17 was elected as Vice President of the Royal College of Pathologists with responsibilities for training, assessments, examinations and research, contributing to national developments in digital pathology.

I am currently Chair of the Head and Neck Working Group of the European Society of Pathology and Vice-President of the International Collaboration for Cancer Reporting (ICCR) developing international consensus for cancer pathology datasets.