The Department of Surgery and Cancer is proud to have ten of its staff recognised in the latest round of Academic Promotions.

Congratulations to Colin Bicknell, James Flanagan and Padmanabhan Ramnarayan who have all been promoted to Professor. Congratulations to Jonathan Krell who has been promoted to Reader. Congratulations to Alex Thompson, Gaby Judah and  Kirill Veselkov who have all been promoted to Senior Lecturer. And, finally, congratulations to Raymond Anakwe, Rajarshi Bhattacharya and Shehan Hettiaratchy have all been promoted to Professor of Practice.

Speaking about the promotions, Head of the Department of Surgery and Cancer, Professor George Hanna said:

“We are incredibly proud of the outstanding achievements of our newly promoted academics. Each of them has made significant contributions to their respective fields, and their promotions reflect their hard work, innovation, and leadership. We look forward to seeing the continued impact they will make, both within Imperial and on a global scale.”

We spoke with some of the newly promoted researchers below. 

Colin Bicknell - Professor of Vascular Surgery 

I trained at the University of Southampton where I obtained my Bachelor of Medicine and then came to Imperial to pursue a higher degree. Clinically, I undertook higher surgical training in the North West Thames and was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2009 and in 2020 became a Reader.

Currently, I am the Chair of The Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust Research Advisory Group, a specific charity responsible for funding research projects aimed at improving outcomes for patients with aortic dissection. Additionally, I serve as Co-Chair of the Aortic Special Interest Group within the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland, where we focus on leading patient-prioritised aortic research across the UK. I’m also a member of the society’s committee and previously served as President of the British Society of Endovascular Therapy.

In terms of my research, my focus has been on vascular surgery, specifically on innovative care of aortic disease. This has been varied and has included the application of robotics in vascular surgery, team training and simulation to generate high performing surgical teams and a multitude of clinical studies/trials.

My focus at present is the set-up of two multicentre clinical trials as Chief Investigator. The first is EARNEST (Early Aortic Repair in Patients Needing Endovascular/open Surgery for Type B Aortic Dissection) a randomised trial funded by the Health Technology Assessment, which just launched this month. It examines the clinical and cost-effectiveness of thoracic endovascular aortic repair in the subacute phase after uncomplicated type B aortic dissection.

The second is the WARRIORS trial (Women’s Aneurysm Research: Repair Immediately or Routine Surveillance, Trial, and Registry), supported by the brilliant Janet Powell. This trial, funded by the British Heart Foundation, examines whether early treatment of aneurysms at a smaller size is effective is preventing aortic related death in the long term.

I have been the Course Director of the Imperial Health Policy MSc, working alongside Erik Mayer and with a brilliant team, for nearly ten years and has overseen the graduation of over 250 students.

I feel nothing but delighted to be promoted and I am very proud to be in this position. I am truly grateful for the work that everyone involved has undertaken with me over the years.

James Flanagan - Professor of Cancer Informatics 

In 1996, I completed my Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Laboratory Science with a research honours degree in 1997, both at Queensland University of Technology. I then completed my PhD at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR), and the University of Queensland in Brisbane Australia, in 2002. I pursued postdoctoral research in Cancer Genetics at QIMR in 2002, Epigenetics at the University of Toronto 2004 and Cancer Epigenetics at University College London in before joining Imperial. In 2009, I was awarded a Breast Cancer Campaign Scientific Fellowship, which allowed me to establish my own research group at Imperial. I was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2014 and then Reader in 2019.

We have a number of areas of research going on in the laboratory currently. We still maintain an interest in epigenetics and cancer risk and have an epigenetics project looking to develop a biomarker to predict treatment for relapsed ovarian cancer patients. But over the last five years we have pioneered a completely new area of research using transactional data from retailers for health outcomes. Digital Health is becoming a very popular topic and there is a wealth of new directions we can take this. Our first study called CLOCS, the Cancer Loyalty Card Study, showed that ovarian cancer patients were buying products to treat their symptoms up to 8 months before their diagnosis, indicating that we might be able to use this type of data to aid earlier detection of cancer. Now, we are launching CLOCS-2, which will focus on several different cancer types.  

This promotion to professor is very exciting. I don’t think any other promotion feels quite the same, everything else is a stepping stone to the next level. It has been a long journey, over fifteen years at Imperial so far, and I can’t forget that you don’t do this research alone. All the PhD students, Postdocs and Masters students who have passed through my lab, the current count is up to 73, not to mention the collaborators and colleagues I have worked with over the years, all contributed to this success. It does put it in perspective.

Padmanabhan Ramnarayan - Professor of Paediatric Critical Care (Clinical)

My clinical and academic background is in paediatric critical care. I completed an MD in Medical Informatics Applications at Imperial in 2009, followed by a research-active NHS career at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where I led national clinical trials and large-scale epidemiological studies in sick children. In 2021, I joined Imperial as a Clinical Reader with the aim of building one of the few academic research groups in my speciality.

I am involved in many interesting research projects currently, but the ones that I am most excited about are two NIHR funded novel clinical trial platforms that will help speed up the generation of much-needed evidence in sick children (PIVOTAL and REMAP-CAP Influenza) and a cross-faculty collaboration with the Imperial "AI Clinician" team to develop AI models to improve decision making in sick children.

I am over the moon to be promoted! I am only the second Professor of paediatric critical care in the whole country from a medical background, so this is a major achievement for me! I hope this promotion will inspire aspiring researchers in my speciality and spread the word that academic paediatric critical care is growing!

Jonathan Krell - Reader in Medical Oncology (Clinical) 

I am a Clinical Reader and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology. I completed my PhD at Imperial as an MRC Clinical Research Fellow, and after completing my training, I was appointed as a Senior Clinical Lecturer to continue my research.

Currently, I am involved in several exciting research projects. I am leading a phase I, first in man trial of an oncolytic viral therapy in Ovarian cancer building on pre-clinical work undertaken at Imperial.  Another key area of my work is leading a clinical trial of an ex-vivo organ culture model in predicting response to anti-cancer therapy. I am also investigating research in manipulation of the gut microbiome to enhance response to anti-cancer therapy.  As well as this, I’m developing nanoparticle delivery systems as RNA-based therapeutics in the cancer clinic. Finally, I’m focused on the development of novel therapies in ovarian cancer.

It’s a great honour to be promoted and to have my work recognised by Imperial. I look forward to continuing my research and the collaborations I have developed over the past few years here.

Alex Thompson - Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sensing

I am a physicist by background. I obtained an undergraduate degree (MSci) in Physics from Durham University before completing a PhD in Photonics in the Department of Physics at Imperial. After my PhD, I worked as a postdoctoral fellow and Research Fellow in Imperial’s Departments of Chemistry, Computing and Medicine. During that time, I was involved in numerous projects investigating the application of photonics to medicine and biology. My research has continued to focus on this area as an academic in the Department of Surgery & Cancer, where my group develops new diagnostic and microrobotic technologies for medicine.

We have a range of projects focusing on the use of light to diagnose and monitor disease and to fabricate and actuate microscale robots. This includes the development of fluorescence sensing for non-invasive assessment of gut barrier function, which we are currently trialling in clinical studies of Crohn’s disease and undernutrition. Additionally, we are also utilising Raman spectroscopy for point-of-care cancer diagnostics, and engineering multifunctional microrobots that are controlled using optical fibres.

I feel great about the promotion! It’s easy to forget that it’s a privilege to work in an academic research environment. I feel particularly lucky to be working as a physicist within Imperial’s Faculty of Medicine, where I’m able to both develop new technologies and apply them to clinical studies to demonstrate real-world impact.

Gaby Judah - Senior Lecturer in Behavioural Sciences

My background is in psychology, and I have worked on behaviour change in health throughout my career.  Currently, I am involved in a variety of behaviour change projects. As a co-theme lead in the NIHR Patient Safety Research Collaboration, much of my work focuses on increasing the uptake of preventative health behaviours, particularly among underserved groups.

I am currently running a programme of work aimed at improving cancer screening uptake, specifically for breast, cervical, and lung cancer. Recently, our team was awarded a significant grant from NIHR to test the impact of a community champion intervention to promote breast cancer screening uptake in underserved groups. 

In addition to this, I supervise several PhD students who are researching medication adherence, including adherence to medications for cardiovascular disease and oral chemotherapy. We are about to start the design of an individually tailored digital intervention to promote adherence to statins. 

In collaboration with researchers at the Dyson School of Design Engineering, I am working on a project to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres, and we are pilot testing an intervention to reduce unnecessary non-sterile glove use. 

I am really excited to have been awarded this promotion.  I am fortunate to work with amazing staff and PhD students, and being in the department gives me lots of opportunities to conduct important research which can have a practical impact.  I hope that the research I do in my position as a senior lecturer will have a positive impact on health and healthcare. 

Kirill Veselkov - Senior Lecturer in Cancer Informatics

My academic background includes a Masters degree in the Physics of Biological Systems, followed by a PhD in Chemistry with a specialisation in Chemoinformatics at Imperial. My research was at the intersection of physics, machine learning, and biology, where I developed advanced computational techniques and machine learning algorithms to improve information recovery from biological Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy.

This interdisciplinary work allowed me to develop unique quantitative and problem-solving skills, along with a deep understanding of data analysis and model development processes. These skills are directly applicable to advancing machine learning and artificial intelligence applications in computational medicine, particularly in cancer informatics, where precision and data-driven insights are essential for improving patient outcomes.

I am currently leading projects that utilise computational and machine learning technologies to address challenges in precision medicine and nutrition. One of these projects, in collaboration with the Vodafone Foundation, involves using the idle processing power of smartphones through the DreamLab app. By combining this computational resource with network-based artificial intelligence (AI) and interactomics data, we aim to identify drug-food combinations that may be effective against cancer genomes and diseases like COVID-19. This work focuses on designing and developing AI-driven precision nutrition interventions, such as phytochemically enriched 'Hyperfoods'.

Additionally, I am heading the AI component of the AIDA (Artificially Intelligent Diagnostic Assistant) project for gastric inflammation, a UKRI/EU-funded initiative involving 15 centres of excellence from eight European countries. Our multidisciplinary team is developing a suite of AI tools, including therapy optimisation against Helicobacter pylori, imaging-based diagnostics, and risk stratification of gastric inflammation. By employing network machine learning for multi-omics integration, we aim to enhance our understanding of gastric inflammation pathways and networks. This approach is intended to help prevent the development of gastric cancer through early detection, personalised treatment and surveillance strategies, and improved patient management.

The significance of these projects lies in their potential to integrate AI technologies with large-scale data analysis to address important health challenges. Through this work, we aim to contribute to the advancement of healthcare by employing data-driven methods that can lead to improved patient outcomes and disease prevention.

I am extremely grateful to my team, my family, and colleagues in the division and department for their continuous support. This promotion is a testament to our collective efforts, and I look forward to continuing our work together to advance the field.

Rajarshi Bhattacharya - Professor of Practice

I am an orthopaedic surgeon and have always been interested in research and evidence-based medicine. I did my MSc in Evidence Based Orthopaedics during my training years and have continued with my research interests throughout my orthopaedic career. My Consultant post at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (ICHNT) provided me with the opportunity of collaborating with fantastic colleagues, passionate about research and education and allowed me to enhance and expand my research portfolio over the years.

I joined ICHNT as a Consultant in 2010 and have been associated with Imperial College from the outset as an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, contributing to teaching, training, education, and research. I also completed my MBA from Imperial College Business School, further strengthening my connection with Imperial.

My research has focussed on several areas of orthopaedics and included clinical research, laboratory-based research, as well as research on healthcare delivery models. Recently, with colleagues at Imperial College, I have been involved in research on the effect of bisphosphonates in bone quality. The next phase of our work will be to use human bone tissue to test the physiological mechanisms that underlie remodelling and bone matrix structure. We also wish to look at metal accumulation in bone and its association with osteoporosis and undertake studies of this at a cellular level.

Along with colleagues in orthopaedic and rheumatology departments, I am currently involved in a study that aims to establish risk factors that are associated with the progression of knee osteoarthritis in high-risk groups such as individuals who have had a clinically significant knee injury.

As a knee surgeon using robots for joint replacement, I am also involved in a trial comparing manual and robotic assisted unicompartmental knee replacement.

Being recognised by one's home institution is always special. I am thrilled and grateful to be offered this promotion and I hope to continue my association with Imperial in this role for a very long time.

Shehan Hettiaratchy - Professor of Practice Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

I've always been one of those annoying people who constantly ask ‘why’ and wonder ‘can we do things better’. This mindset has been at the core of my lifelong research activity, which started during my medical school days at Oxford. I spent three years as a research fellow at Harvard, studying limb transplantation without immunosuppression, and saw the protocol I helped develop translated into clinical delivery. Since moving back to the UK, my focus has been on clinical outcomes from trauma, while also supporting basic science research through the supervision of PhD and BSc students.

Currently, my research is focussed on systems improvement in trauma care, in both the UK and in humanitarian settings. We have set up a research group looking at major trauma research here at Imperial (TRAUM@IC). In addition, we are conducting research into the physical health of UK military veterans as part of Op RESTORE, the NHS national veterans' physical health and well-being service that I set up and run. Our final focus is on conflict settings and improving data capture and access to healthcare. These last two projects are looking at healthcare navigation and how that can lead to better outcomes. 

I am really pleased with the promotion...but I will still be just called "H" by my team!