The global cancer burden is growing and patient outlook remains poor for many types of cancer, particularly in low-middle income countries. Despite advances in curative treatments in recent decades, these alone are not enough to solve the World's cancer problem. My research aims to investigate how environment and lifestyle factors affect our risk of getting cancer using novel aetiologial approaches to identify new risk factors, contributing knowledge to primary prevention and early detection strategies. 

Previous experience

2016-2021

Before joining the Cancer Epidemiology Group in the Centre for Public Health at Queen's, I worked for the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC-WHO) - the World Health Organization's dedicated cancer prevention agency in Lyon, France. I initially joined IARC as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Environment and Lifestyle Epidemiolgy Branch, working for 4 years on the Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma African PrEvention research (ESCCAPE) project: https://esccape.iarc.fr/. I contributed to a range of research activities including case-control studies of risk factors for ESCC in East Africa, developing exposure assessment methods for hot beverage consumption, and a feasibility study of a less-invasive capsule sponge (Cytosponge^TM) biopsy for the detection of ESCC precancerous lesions in Tanzania - a collaboration between IARC, the Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute and the University of Cambridge. I gained epidemiological fieldwork experience in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and China, as well as presenting at conferences in Zambia and Mozambique. 

My final year at IARC was spent as an Exposure Assessment Scientist in the IARC Monographs Programme on the Identification of Carcinogenic Hazards to Humans: https://monographs.iarc.who.int/. These evaluations classify agents as to their carcinogenicty: e.g., Group 1 - 'carcinogenic to humans', Group 2A - 'probably carcinigenic to humans' etc. My role involved the oversight of exposure characterisation reviews for agents and critical appriasals of exposure assessment methods used in key human cancer and human mechanistic studies, serving as Rapporteur and Lead Rapporteur on three separate volumes. 

2012-2016

Before transitioning into epidemiology, I obtained a PhD from the University of Manchester, where I had previously been awarded a BSc in Environmental Science. My PhD research focused on environmental monitoring and biomonitoring of human exposure to inorganic arsenic - a Group 1 carcinogen. The project - a collaboration between the University of Manchester, the British Geological Survey and Public Health England - collected environmental (drinking water, soil, dust) and biological (urine, toenails, hair) samples to investigate exposure in a sample of over 200 private water supply users in Cornwall, UK.