Professor Andrew Beggs FRCS (Gen), PhD

Andrew Beggs

Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences
Co-Lead - Molecular Oncology, Pathology and Genetics, Professor in Surgery & Cancer Genetics
Head of West Midlands GI & Gynaecology Cancer Tumour Board
Cancer Research UK & RCSEng Advanced Clinician Scientist, Consultant Colorectal & General Surgeon

Contact details

Email
a.beggs@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences
University of Birmingham
Vincent Drive
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Andrew Beggs is a Professor of Cancer Genetics & Surgery in the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of Birmingham. He currently holds a Cancer Research UK & Royal College of Surgeons Advanced Clinician Scientist award. He is also an Consultant Colorectal & General  Surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham with a subspeciality interest in laparoscopic rectal cancer surgery and advanced endoscopy. Andrew was the clinical theme lead of Cancer Genomics research theme for the Cancer Research UK Birmingham Centre between 2017-2022. He is co-lead of the Molecular Oncology, Pathology and Genetics research theme within the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences. Andrew is also Research Director for cancer in the NHS South and Central Genomic Medicine Service Alliance.

His major research interests include colorectal, oesophageal and sarcoma cancer biology and translational medicine. He has published articles in The Lancet, Gut, Journal of Pathology and PLoS Genetics. He collaborated in writing the European consensus guidelines for the management of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome.

Andrew has been awarded grant funding from Cancer Research UK, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Illumina UK, Cancer Research UK, Mason Medical Research Foundation, Peel Medical Research Trust & St Georges Hospital Charity.

His current research programme is examining the molecular genetics of colorectal cancer, and has recently received programme funding from CRUK to set up organoid model systems to understand neoadjuvant chemoradiosensitivity in rectal cancer.  He is also carrying out research into rare cancers using multi-omics profiling;  biomarker development technologies and runs a bioinformatics “dry-lab” to search for novel therapeutic targets and stratification markers.

For more information please look at the laboratory website .

We face two key factors when trying to save patients' lives; early diagnosis and matching the right drug to the individual patient. With help, Birmingham could develop a genetic test, to catch the early signs of bowel cancer before the patient themselves becomes aware of them. Find out how to support our research through the Birmingham in Action campaign.

Andrew has also been leading COVID-19 testing in re-purposed labs, enabling same-day PCR testing for staff at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and the West Midlands Ambulance Service.

Qualifications

  • FRCS(Gen) – subspecialty training in Coloproctology 2016
  • PhD Cancer Genetics, 2012
  • MRCS (England), 2006
  • MBBS with distinction Medicine & Surgery, 2003
  • BSc(Hons) Radiological Sciences (i), 2000

Biography

Andrew qualified from Guy’s, Kings & St. Thomas’ Hospitals School of Medicine, Kings College London in 2003 with distinction, where he also completed a BSc in Radiological Sciences at Kings College London where he carried out research into the use of standardised uptake values (SUV) in 18-fluorodeoxyglucose and 11C-methionine Positron Emission Tomography (18FDG-PET) in quantifying malignant potential in tumours.

Andrew was an Anatomy Demonstrator at Guys Hospital, Kings College London, under supervision of Professor Harold Ellis & Professor Susan Standring (Editor of Grays Anatomy). He then undertook a Basic Surgical Training rotation at St Georges Hospital, London and Kingston Hospital, Surrey, being awarded the Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2006.

Andrew started his doctoral research in 2007 when he was appointed a research registrar in Colorectal Surgery at Croydon University Hospital, undertaking research leading to the award of a PhD in the laboratory of Professor Ian Tomlinson at the London Research Institute  of Cancer Research UK, latterly at the University of Oxford. Andrew was also supervised by Professor Shirley Hodgson (St Georges, University of London) and Mr Muti Abulafi (Croydon University Hospital). Subsequent to his research, he was appointed to the higher surgical training scheme in South-West London and Surrey in 2010 as a Specialty Registrar in General Surgery.

He was then appointed as a deanery-funded Academic Clinical Lecturer (ACL) in General Surgery at the University of Birmingham/West Midlands Deanery where he undertook training in General Surgery and subspecialist training in Coloproctology. He was awarded a Wellcome Trust postdoctoral fellowship for Clinician Scientists and undertook work examining novel determinants of radiosensitivity in rectal cancer. He gained his Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training in General Surgery and Coloproctology in October 2016. He was appointed as Professor of Cancer Genetics and Surgery in 2020.

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

Andrew has supervised multiple successful clinical and non-clinical PhD and MD projects at Birmingham. He is interested in supervising doctoral research students in the following areas:

  • Colorectal, oesophageal and sarcoma cancer genetics/biology
  • Cancer genetics in general
  • Next generation sequencing techniques
  • Cancer bioinformatics

Research

Basic science:

  • Epigenetics
  • Biomarkers
  • Colorectal cancer genetics
  • Colorectal cancer biology
  • Retroperitoneal Sarcoma
  • Genome association wide studies
  • Telomere biology & genome stability
  • DNA repair
  • Next generation sequencing
  • Microarrays (SNP, aCGH & methylation)
  • Bioinformatics

Clinical:

  • Rectal cancer
  • Pelvic floor dysfunction
  • Anal incontinence
  • Bedside ultrasound
  • Regression modelling & statistical analysis

Other activities

  • GMC Partner:  Andrew works for the General Medical Council appraising specialist and foundation training in surgery as well as curriculum approvals for surgical specialties
  • Deputy Chair of Junior Investigators Group, CRUK Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre Network 2012-2015
  • Scientific Director, College of Medical and Dental Sciences Genomics Facility (Genomics Birmingham)
  • Andrew is currently a reviewer for The Lancet, British Medical Journal, The Journal of Neurological Sciences, British Journal of Surgery, Genes Chromosomes & Cancers, Gastroenterology and PLoS ONE. He also acts as a peer reviewer for Cancer Research UK, the MRC, The CORE Charity, Big-C Cancer Research and Heart UK.
  • University enabling technologies committee GeCIP for 100KG colorectal

Publications

Recent publications

Article

COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium & Beggs, A 2022, 'Hospital admission and emergency care attendance risk for SARS-CoV-2 delta (B.1.617.2) compared with alpha (B.1.1.7) variants of concern: a cohort study', The Lancet Infectious Diseases, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 35-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00475-8

Horniblow, RD, Pathak, P, Balacco, DL, Acharjee, A, Lles, E, Gkoutos, G, Beggs, AD & Tselepis, C 2022, 'Iron-mediated epigenetic activation of NRF2 targets', Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, vol. 101, 108929. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2021.108929

Bosch, S, Acharjee, A, Quraishi, MN, Rojas, P, Bakkali, A, Jansen, EE, Brizzio Brentar, M, Kuijvenhoven, J, Stokkers, P, Struys, E, Beggs, AD, Gkoutos, GV, de Meij, TG & de Boer, NK 2022, 'The potential of fecal microbiota and amino acids to detect and monitor patients with adenoma', Gut Microbes, vol. 14, no. 1, 2038863. https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2022.2038863

Wood, H, Acharjee, A, Pearce, H, Quraishi, MN, Powell, R, Rossiter, A, Beggs, A, Ewer, A, Moss, P & Toldi, G 2021, 'Breastfeeding promotes early neonatal regulatory T-cell expansion and immune tolerance of non-inherited maternal antigens', Allergy. https://doi.org/10.1111/all.14736

The ISARIC4C Investigators, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium & Beggs, A 2021, 'Circulating SARS-CoV-2 spike N439K variants maintain fitness while evading antibody-mediated immunity', Cell, vol. 184, no. 5, pp. 1171-1187.e20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.01.037

Stodolna, A, He, M, Vasipalli, M, Kingsbury, Z, Becq, J, Stockton, JD, Dilworth, MP, James, J, Sillo, T, Blakeway, D, Ward, ST, Ismail, T, Ross, MT & Beggs, AD 2021, 'Clinical-grade whole-genome sequencing and 3' transcriptome analysis of colorectal cancer patients', Genome medicine, vol. 13, no. 1, 33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-021-00852-8

COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium & Beggs, A 2021, 'Combined epidemiological and genomic analysis of nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 infection early in the pandemic and the role of unidentified cases in transmission', Clinical Microbiology and Infection. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2021.07.040

S:CORT Consortium 2021, 'Complete response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer is associated with RAS/AKT mutations and high tumour mutational burden', Radiation oncology (London, England), vol. 16, no. 1, 129. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13014-021-01853-y

The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium & Beggs, A 2021, 'Detecting SARS-CoV-2 variants with SNP genotyping', PLOS One, vol. 16, no. 2, e0243185. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243185

Ptasinska, A, Whalley, C, Bosworth, A, Poxon, C, Bryer, C, Machin, N, Grippon, S, Wise, EL, Armson, B, Howson, ELA, Goring, A, Snell, G, Forster, J, Mattocks, C, Frampton, S, Anderson, R, Cleary, D, Parker, J, Boukas, K, Graham, N, Cellura, D, Garratt, E, Skilton, R, Sheldon, H, Collins, A, Ahmad, N, Friar, S, Burns, D, Williams, T, Godfrey, KM, Deans, Z, Douglas, A, Hill, S, Kidd, M, Porter, D, Kidd, SP, Cortes, NJ, Fowler, V, Williams, T, Richter, A & Beggs, AD 2021, 'Diagnostic accuracy of loop-mediated isothermal amplification coupled to nanopore sequencing (LamPORE) for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection at scale in symptomatic and asymptomatic populations', Clinical Microbiology and Infection. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmi.2021.04.008

Phipps, O, Quraishi, MN, Dickson, EA, Steed, H, Kumar, A, Acheson, AG, Beggs, AD, Brookes, MJ & Al-Hassi, HO 2021, 'Differences in the on- and off-tumor microbiota between right- and left-sided colorectal cancer', Microorganisms, vol. 9, no. 5, 1108. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9051108

Awasthi, A, Barbour, J, Beggs, A, Bhandari, P, Blakeway, D, Brookes, M, Brown, J, Brown, M, Caldwell, G, Clokie, S, Colleypriest, B, Conlin, A, Silva, SD, Caestecker, JD, Deeks, J, Dhar, A, Dilworth, M, Fogden, E, Foley, S, Ghosh, D, Grellier, L, Hart, A, Hoque, SS, Iacucci, M, Iqbal, T, James, J, Jarvis, M, Jayaprakash, A, Keshav, S, Magill, L, Matthews, G, Mawdsley, J, McLaughlin, S, Mehta, S, Monahan, K, Morton, D, Murugesan, S, Parkes, M, Pestinger, V, Probert, C, Ramadas, A, Rettino, A, Sebastian, S, Sharma, N, Griffiths, M, Stockton, J, Subramanian, V, Suggett, N, Taniere, P, Teare, J, Verma, AM & Wallis, Y 2021, 'Enhanced neoplasia detection in chronic ulcerative colitis: the ENDCaP-C diagnostic accuracy study', Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1-87. https://doi.org/10.3310/eme08010

Du Plessis, L, Mccrone, JT, Zarebski, AE, Hill, V, Ruis, C, Gutierrez, B, Raghwani, J, Ashworth, J, Colquhoun, R, Connor, TR, Faria, NR, Jackson, B, Loman, NJ, O’toole, Á, Nicholls, SM, Parag, KV, Scher, E, Vasylyeva, TI, Volz, EM, Watts, A, Bogoch, II, Khan, K, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Aanensen, DM, Kraemer, MUG, Rambaut, A, Pybus, OG & Beggs, A 2021, 'Establishment and lineage dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in the UK', Science, vol. 371, no. 6530, pp. 708-712. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf2946

CMMID COVID-19 Working Group, COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium & Beggs, A 2021, 'Estimated transmissibility and impact of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B. 1.1.7 in England', Science, vol. 372, no. 6538, eabg3055. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg3055

Letter

Winzor, G, Bosworth, A, Whalley, C, Beggs, AD & Atabani, SF 2021, 'Detection of SARS-CoV-2 on laboratory paper request forms: a potential source of infection for laboratory personnel', The Journal of hospital infection, vol. 108, pp. 207-208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.11.003

View all publications in research portal