Who We Are

Dr. Matthew Barclay

Senior Research Fellow

Matt is a statistician and Senior Research Fellow. His research focuses on applying modern statistical methods to electronic health records data to answer questions of clinical or health policy interest. He has a PhD in Public Health and Primary Care from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Statistics with Medical Applications from the University of Sheffield, and an MMath in Mathematics from the University of Durham. He currently holds a CRUK International Alliance for Cancer Early Detection Pathway Award fellowship.

Ms. Marta Berglund

Research Assistant in Statistics and Epidemiology

Marta is a research assistant at the ECHO group investigating patterns in healthcare utilisation by route to diagnosis preceding lung cancer using electronically linked healthcare records. She has previously completed an MSc in Health Data Science at UCL and a BSc in Global Health & Social Medicine at King’s College London.

Mx. Dan Brunsdon

Research Assistant & Patient and Public Involvement Liaison

Dan is a medical anthropologist specialised in qualitative research and is responsible for planning, organising, and evaluating Patient and Public Involvement/Engagement (PPIE) activities across a study portfolio on early detection and diagnosis of cancer, including developing and researching novel methods for public engagement and citizen science. He completed an MSc in medical anthropology from Durham University, after a BA in anthropology and political science from the University of Birmingham. Their most recent science communication event was taking part in June 2023's I'm A Scientist, Get Me Out Of Here! competition, a student-led STEM enrichment activity.

Dr. Helen Fowler

Research Fellow

Helen is a Research Fellow in cancer epidemiology. Her work examines the influence of pre-existing morbidities on the diagnostic process of cancer. She has completed a PhD in Epidemiology and Population Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and an MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, at the University of Leeds. She has previously researched inequalities in cancer outcomes working in the Cancer Survival Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and outcomes for women with breast cancer while working for Cancer Council Queensland in Australia.

Professor Georgios Lyratzopoulos

Professor of Cancer Epidemiology

Yoryos is foundation Professor of Cancer Epidemiology. He researches diagnostic pathways and intervals in patients with as-yet-undiagnosed cancer; the prodromal symptoms of cancer and other diseases; and inequalities in cancer diagnosis and treatment and related organisational and international variations. He has qualified in medicine at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and has an MD (higher research degree; Manchester), and an MPH (Liverpool). He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and of the Faculty of Public Health; CRUK Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellow (2015-2023), NIHR Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2012-14), and Cancer Research UK ‘Future Leaders’ Prize awardee (2016).

Ms. Freya Pollington

PhD Candidate

Freya is a PhD Researcher working in the area of cancer and non-neoplastic disease risk prediction for patients presenting to primary care with new and vague symptoms. She attained an MSc in Health Data Analytics & Machine Learning from Imperial College London, and prior to that a BSc in Medical Biosciences, also at Imperial College London. Her research is funded by the UKRI via Health Data Research UK’s Big Data for Complex Disease Driver Programme.

Dr. Meena Rafiq

Senior Clinical Research Fellow & Academic GP

Meena works as Clinical Research Fellow, alongside clinical commitments as a GP. Her work focuses on the use of information from medical records (including use and results of different tests) to help accelerate diagnostic pathways and optimise diagnostic management. Having qualified in Medicine from St George’s, University of London, she has completed a PhD in the field of early cancer diagnosis in primary care at UCL and an MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has held two NIHR Fellowships (Academic Clinical Fellowship; In-Practice Fellowship) and a Royal Marsden Partners (London Cancer) Fellowship.

Dr. Cristina Renzi

Principal Clinical Research Fellow

Cristina is a public health physician and epidemiologist. She focuses on the examination of diagnostic pathways and factors influencing the timeliness of the diagnostic process for cancer patients, including the role of pre-existing physical and mental health conditions. After graduating in Medicine and completing her specialty training in Public Health at the University of Rome, she obtained an MSc and a PhD in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has been awarded a British Medical Association BMA TP Gunton award for her research in public health relating to cancer.

Dr. Becky White

Senior Research Fellow

Becky is a Senior Research Fellow / Senior Data Manager. She researches prodromal symptoms in electronic health records data, including predicting the risk of cancer and other consequential illness in patients consulting with fatigue; and manages and curates the Group’s data sources. She has previously managed Cancer Research UK’s analytical partnership with the English Cancer Registry, where she has also researched geographic and sociodemographic patterns in cancer treatments, leading a report on use of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. She has recently completed her PhD at the University College London, and is a Geography (BA) graduate of the University of Oxford.

Ms. Emma Whitfield

Research Assistant in Statistics and Epidemiology

Emma is a PhD student and part-time research assistant working on diagnostic quality and safety research across a range of neoplastic and non-neoplastic conditions. She is funded by the Health Data Research UK-The Alan Turing Institute Wellcome PhD Programme in Health Data Science and has an MMath from the University of Bath.

Ms. Bethany Wickramasinghe

PhD Candidate

Bethany is a mixed methods PhD researcher exploring the value of prescribing activity in improving early cancer detection in primary care. Her PhD is funded by the Medical Research Council Doctoral Training Programme. She is a data scientist with a background in applied population health data analytics and substantive expertise in using electronic health records to support local service development and population health research. Through previous appointments at the English National Disease Registration Service and Macmillan Cancer Support, she has delivered impactful insights into early cancer diagnosis, inequalities in cancer incidence, and the psychological impact of a cancer diagnosis.

Ms. Nadine Zakkak

Research Assistant

Nadine works as a Research Assistant in Epidemiology and Data Science and is currently examining the associations between symptoms and stages of cancer. She holds an MSc in Health Data Science from UCL and a BSc in Bioinformatics from the Lebanese American University.