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.
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Liz has enjoyed 40 years of clinical practice at the University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL). After brief spells in vascular surgery and coronary care Liz spent a decade in UHL’s very research active respiratory unit. This led to an interest in service developments, research and lung cancer which became the focus for the last 24 years of her clinical practice. In response to patient need in 2004, Liz established Mesothelioma UK, a national charity for mesothelioma.
Currently she is a Consultant Nurse at UHL and is also CEO at Mesothelioma UK. Liz has Honorary university positions in both Leicester and Sheffield, is very research active, keenly promotes nursing as a career and engages in education and training on many levels.
Liz is a founder member of the International Thoracic Oncology Nurses Forum, a past chair, and now lifetime honorary member, of Lung Cancer Nursing UK, a long serving previous board member of The British Thoracic Oncology Group and a current, first nurse member of the International Mesothelioma Interest Group board.
In the 2019 Queen Elizabeth’s Birthday honours list, Liz was invited to become a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in recognition of her services to patients and cancer research.
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.
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.
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.
I am a Consultant Clinical Oncologist based at the University Hospitals of Leicester. I have a special interest in exploring the use of radiotherapy in Mesothelioma.
I am the Clinical Lead for Stereotactic radiotherapy and have instrumental in establishing Leicester as one of the first few centres to be commissioned for Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy in the UK.