Research

I have set up a research team devoted to cancer genetic studies and biomarker development, in particular in male urological cancers. The mission of the research team is to reduce mortality and morbidity of cancer patients by understanding cancer development and progression mechanisms and facilitating precision medicine through the development of efficient cancer detection, prognostic and treatment response prediction/monitoring biomarkers.

Our past work has been mainly focused on identification of genetic alterations and genetic mechanisms in cancer development, progression and therapeutic response. Recently, our research work moved into circulation biomarker development, including CTCs, exosome and other cells, for cancer diagnosis, prognosis and prediction/monitoring of cancer progression and therapeutic response.

There are currently two main research areas of interest:

• Biomarker discovery and clinical applications, focusing on circulating biomarkers (CTCs, exosomes and other cancer associated circulating cells) for cancer diagnosis, prognosis and prediction/monitoring of cancer progression and therapeutic response.
• Mechanisms of prostate cancer metastasis and therapeutic resistance.

Other Activities

• Senior Editor: American Journal of Cancer Research
• Editorial Board Member: The Open Breast Cancer Journal
• Editorial Board Member: Journal of Cancer Research Updates
• Scientific assessment committee member: France national cancer research programme Canceropole (2007-2014)
• Research grant reviewer for funding bodies, such as British Medical Research Council (MRC), British National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), UK Prostate Action, Prostate Cancer Research Charity, National Cancer Institute of France, International Association of Cancer Research, Hong Kong Research Grants Council
• Referee of scientific journals such as Oncogene, J Path, Gene Chromosome Cancer, Br J Cancer, International J Cancer, Carcinogenesis, PloS One, BMC Cancer, Histopathology, Clinical Cancer Research and America Journal of Pathology
• Member of prostate cancer ICGC consortium
  Member of PRACTICAL prostate cancer predisposition study international consortium
• Active Member of American Association for Cancer Research
• Honorable Professor, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
• Honorable Professor, Naning Medical University, China
• Visiting Professor, Zhengzhou University Medical College, China

Major Funding

• 2021-2026 - Prostate Cancer UK, 'Circulating tumour cells as biomarkers for treatment stratification of localised prostate cancer,' £749,527 (leading Co-PI)
• 2019-2021- CRUK Cancer Early Detection Primer award, 'Exploring platelet miRNA as a novel cost-effective non-invasive liquid biopsy approach to improve prostate cancer diagnosis,' £97,242
• 2017-2022- Angle Europe PLC, "The prognostic value of circulating megakaryocytes for cancer patients" £278,000
• 2020-2022- Orchid, "The Robert Lane Tissue Bank incorporating the Circulating Tumour Cell project" £283,547.46. (Co-PI)
• 2008-2011- Medical Research Council, Associated genes in prostate cancer, £303,225
  
  

Recent Publications

AtlFast3: The Next Generation of Fast Simulation in ATLAS Aad G, Abbott B, Abbott DC et al. Computing and Software for Big Science (2022) 6(7)

Emulating the impact of additional proton–proton interactions in the ATLAS simulation by presampling sets of inelastic Monte Carlo events Aad G, Abbott B, Abbott DC et al. Computing and Software for Big Science (2022) 6(7)

Measurement of the energy response of the ATLAS calorimeter to charged pions from W±→τ±(→π±ντ)ντ events in Run 2 data Aad G, Abbott B, Abbott DC et al. European Physical Journal C (2022) 82(10) 223

The ATLAS inner detector trigger performance in pp collisions at 13 TeV during LHC Run 2 Aad G, Abbott B, Abbott DC et al. European Physical Journal C (2022) 82(10) 206

Search for Higgs bosons decaying into new spin-0 or spin-1 particles in four-lepton final states with the ATLAS detector with 139 fb−1 of pp collision data at s = 13 TeV Aad G, Abbott B, Abbott DC et al. Journal of High Energy Physics (2022) 2022(10) 41

Observation of electroweak production of two jets in association with an isolated photon and missing transverse momentum, and search for a Higgs boson decaying into invisible particles at 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector Aad G, Abbott B, Abbott DC et al. European Physical Journal C (2022) 82(10) 105

Performance of the ATLAS Level-1 topological trigger in Run 2 Aad G, Abbott B, Abbott DC et al. European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields (2022) 82(1)

Measurement of the c-jet mistagging efficiency in tt¯ events using pp collision data at √s=13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector Aad G, Abbott B, Abbott DC et al. European Physical Journal C (2022) 82(7)

Search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into b b¯ and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector Aad G, Abbott B, Abbott DC et al. Journal of High Energy Physics (2022) 2022(7)

Erratum to: Measurement of hadronic event shapes in high-pT multijet final states at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector Aad G, Abbott B, Abbott DC et al. Journal of High Energy Physics (2021) 2021(10) 53

Team

Postdoctoral Researchers

• Rachel Lawrence

PhD Students

• Caitlin Davis
  
• Xueke Wang
• Junjie Chai
• Edwina Burke

Clinical Research Fellows

• Tarek Al-Hammouri

Research Technician

• Edwina Burke

Biography

Education