Charlotte joined the Mesothelioma Research Group in 2018. Charlotte plays an essential role in ensuring regulatory (REC, HTA, GCP) compliance within the research programme. Her work also involves contributing to the development and execution of national translational research projects and clinical trials and she also works closely with international commercial partners. Charlotte has a key role in coordinating the translational research studies within different Universities and NHS departments. Her work also involves overseeing the sequencing stage of the translational projects.
Team Category: Home Page Module
Dr. Aleksandra Bzura
Aleksandra, a former PhD student of Prof Fennell, is a dedicated researcher in molecular and cellular biology. Her work focuses on the advancement of cancer therapeutics through the meticulous in vitro and ex vivo investigation of complex mechanisms in response to DNA damage therapies. Aleksandra is skilled in conducting and optimization of translational research, including the establishment of patient-derived primary cell lines.
Dr. Jens C. Hahne
Jens received his PhD in biochemistry from the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg i.Br. (Germany). During several postdoc positions [Department of Molecular Pathology at the University of Bonn (Germany), Charite Berlin (Germany), Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the University of Wuerzburg (Germany)] he received a broad training and knowledge in molecular pathology, oncology and translational research. Then he worked for 8 years as Senior Scientist in the Department of Molecular Pathology at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR, London, UK) before joining the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre in Leicester (UK) as Research Manager. He has published more than 80 papers in reputed journals, contributed to several books and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute.
Dr. Joanna Dzialo
Joanna joined Prof Fennell group in 2017. Her main focus is work with patient derived explants and and other ex vivo models of mesothelioma for testing new drug therapies. Joanna has extensive lab experience including setting up and optimizing translational research pipelines. She has great expertise in immunohistological staining and image analysis using digital pathology tools. Joanna is also working with patient derived primary cell lines including establishing and characterising of cell lines from clinical material.
Dean Fennell, FRCP, PhD
Professor Dean Fennell is a clinician scientist and international leader in mesothelioma research. He has designed and led several investigator-initiated trials from phase 1 through phase III including the first precision medicine platform study for patients with mesothelioma (MIST).
He is past-president of the International mesothelioma interest group, past NCRI mesothelioma chair, co-author of UK BTS, and European (ESMO, ERS) mesothelioma treatment guidelines and served two terms on the EORTC board. His lab is currently pioneering novel precision medicine strategies and the study of tumour evolution in mesothelioma.
Professor Fennell held two CRUK clinician scientist and MRC doctoral fellowships. He originally trained in pharmacology (1st class) and medicine at UCL , then completed training in London. Prof. Fennell has published 167 peer reviewed articles in journals including The Lancet, Lancet Oncology, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, & Nature communications
In 2023 he was awarded the IMIG Senior Investigator medal and MARF Pioneer Award for his work in the field.