Student profiles
The Institute of Cancer Research attracts the very best science graduates and clinicians to carry out cutting-edge research and make the discoveries that defeat cancer. Our students enjoy working in a high-tech and collaborative environment, in which their research can be translated into direct benefits for patients.
Student Profile
Caroline Clarke is a fourth-year PhD student in the Genome Instability and Cancer Team at the ICR. Her PhD is carried out in collaboration with AstraZeneca as part of the industrial CASE (iCASE) studentship scheme. She is focusing on understanding how cells repair damage to their DNA and its role in cancer.
Student Profile
George West is a second year PhD student in the Radiotherapy and Imaging Division at the ICR and the Mechanical Engineering department at Imperial College London. His joint PhD is part of the new Convergence Science Centre at the ICR and Imperial – bringing together researchers working across physics, data science, engineering, the biological sciences and medicine to tackle questions in cancer.
Student Profile
Fiona Want is a third-year PhD student in the Target Evaluation and Molecular Therapeutics team at the ICR. Her project focuses on the role of two APOBEC3 proteins in bladder cancer, investigating why they are hijacked and how their activity may contribute to the emergence of drug resistance.
Student Profile
Maria Coakley is a Clinical Research Fellow carrying out her PhD in the Division of Breast Cancer Research at the ICR. Her project involves working with patient samples collected from a clinical trial to investigate the evolution of triple-negative breast cancers.
Student Profile
Imogen Thrussell is carrying her PhD in the Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging at the ICR. She is investigating how AI can be combined with advanced MRI techniques to improve the assessment of radiotherapy response in soft-tissue sarcomas (STS).
Student Profile
Nithya Paranthaman is a second-year PhD student in our Division of Molecular Pathology. She is developing and optimising micro-sampling techniques to monitor multiple myeloma – specifically a blood-sampling tool that patients can perform from the comfort of their own home.
Student Profile
Muhammed Kocak is a PhD student in the Division of Structural Biology at the ICR. His project focuses on understanding a waste disposal system used by cells called ‘autophagy’. He is investigating how specific molecules involved in this process may contribute to cancer development and drug resistance.
Student Profile
Dr Rebecca Shakir was awarded the Professor Alan Horwich Prize for outstanding achievement in our MSc in Oncology. The programme educates medically qualified doctors specialising in oncology on the theory and practice of cancer science and advanced cancer treatment – all for the benefit of patients.
Student Profile
Priyanka Patel is a Clinical Oncology Registrar in training. She is currently carrying out an MD(Res) degree looking at the emerging concept of oligoprogression in metastatic prostate and lung cancer – where just a small number of a patient’s tumours start growing again after an initial successful treatment.
Student Profile
Varun Ramaswamy is a third-year PhD student at the ICR. He is working on a collaborative project between the Division of Cancer Therapeutics and the Division of Structural Biology that aims to solve the 3D structure of a protein called HSET using cryo-electron microscopy and complementary biophysical techniques.
Student Profile
Timothy Sun Hon Mun is a PhD student in the Computational Imaging Team at the ICR. He is investigating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and medical imaging in predicting survival outcomes and treatment response for patients with soft tissue sarcomas. His project is part of the Sarcoma Accelerator Consortium.