Staff in the Bladder Cancer Research Centre

Professor Richard T Bryan MBChB PhD MRCS FAcadTM

Director of the Bladder Cancer Research Centre

Rik Bryan is a former clinical urologist who became a full-time bladder cancer research academic at the University of Birmingham in 2009. He subsequently established a dedicated bladder cancer research laboratory group - initially focusing on urinary biomarkers and proteomics, the group expanded and worked with other University of Birmingham academics to incorporate genomics & bioinformatics, novel therapeutics, and bio-medical engineering, all within an ethos of translation and clinical research.

Rik is also the Chief Investigator of the Bladder Cancer Prognosis Programme (BCPP), the SELENIB clinical trial, and POUT-T, and his particular interests are biomarkers, and novel agents, technologies and pathways (both molecular pathways and patient pathways!). As a full-time academic, Rik teaches and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students including clinical and non-clinical Masters and PhD students.

Dr Douglas G Ward PhD

Theme Lead - Biomarkers & Proteomics

Doug Ward is a Senior Research Fellow leading the laboratory research into biomarkers at the BCRC. His group’s research spans all aspects of tissue and liquid biopsy biomarkers - from initial candidate discovery though to validation and translation into clinical use.

Doug spent the early part of his career using biophysical techniques to investigate protein structure and function. This led to an interest in mass spectrometry-based proteomics which evolved into utilising proteomic technologies to study bladder cancer, and the resultant identification of prognostic protein biomarkers.  Next generation sequencing has now become a key technology for DNA and RNA-based biomarker research and his group have recently developed and validated a test based on targeted sequencing of urine DNA for the non-invasive detection of bladder cancer.

Dr Roland Arnold PhD

Theme Lead – Genomics & Bioinformatics

Roland Arnold is a specialist in the analysis of molecular alterations in cancer, and leads the Bioinformatics for Cancer and Disease Group in the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. He is a bioinformatician (computational biologist) by training and expert in the analysis of the ‘big data’ generated by modern high-throughput biological studies, such as cancer genome sequencing to detect mutations and other aberrations in tumour DNA, and especially events at the RNA level.

His work spans a wide range of research questions, including changes in gene splicing, novel methods to interpret gene expression patterns, and tailor-made analyses that integrate different biological data-types. Since his move from Oxford to Birmingham in 2017, he has been collaborating with the Bladder Cancer Group to understand and analyse patient-derived genomic data from the Bladder Cancer Prognosis Programme in order to identify biomarker candidates for disease detection and stratification.

He regularly supervises students at the Masters and PhD level, working on exciting genomics and bioinformatic projects. He also collaborates with different biologists and medical scientists to develop new insights into different cancer types (with a focus on urothelial/bladder and colorectal cancers), and to understand the basic biology of gene splicing. 

Dr Farhat Khanim PhD

Theme Lead – Novel Therapeutics

Farhat Khanim is a translational cancer biologist using drug repurposing to identify novel, low toxicity and affordable therapies for rare diseases and diseases of unmet need. Her major research areas are haematological cancers of the elderly, urological cancers and paediatric cancer in low-middle income countries (LMICs) in Africa. Farhat’s research encompasses the full spectrum of translational research from in vitro drug screening, preclinical mechanism of action studies using a range of molecular, cellular and biochemical approaches, through to clinical trials in the UK and Africa.

Farhat is also Director for Research for the School of Biomedical Sciences. As a full-time academic, Farhat teaches and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students including clinical and non-clinical Masters and PhD students. 

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Professor Duncan Shepherd BEng PhD CEng FIMechE SFHEA

Theme Lead – Bio-medical Engineering

Duncan Shepherd is Professor of Bio-medical Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.  His research is in the application of mechanical engineering to medicine.  He works closely with surgeons and clinicians to ensure that his research has the potential for translation, and also works in collaboration with the medical device industry.

Duncan’s research is split into two main areas: 
1) design of medical devices; 
2) mechanical testing of biomaterials and medical devices. 

His research on the design of medical devices has included: joint replacement implants for the fingers and wrist; closing the sternum; surgical instruments for bladder tumours; surgical instruments for minimally invasive hip surgery; surgical instruments for spinal surgery. 

His research on the mechanical testing of biomaterials and medical devices has included: mechanical properties of polymers; mechanical properties of articular cartilage; testing fracture fixation devices; testing a range of spinal implants.

Mr Keval Patel, BSc, MBBS, MERIT MSEd (Master of Surgical Education), PhD, FRCS(Urol) Consultant Urological Surgeon & Robotic Surgeon and Honorary Senior Research Fellow

Theme Lead – Clinical Research & Clinicial Trials

Keval Patel read Medicine at Imperial College in 2005. He undertook his basic surgical training in the South of England, during which time he was awarded a Masters of Surgical Education from Imperial College, London. He was appointed as an academic higher surgical trainee in Urology in the East of England deanery. He took time out of clinical training for a period of research training at the University of Cambridge where he was awarded a PhD in oncology in 2017.

In 2021 he was appointed as a Consultant Uro-oncologist and Robotic Surgeon with a focus on pelvic cancer at University Hospitals Birmingham and holds an Honorary Senior Clinical Research Fellow role at the University of Birmingham. His research interests lie in translational research in urological cancers, particularly the use of biomarkers to better risk stratify patients and so that they receive the right treatments without delay.