Mr Neeraj Lal MBBS BSc PhD MRCS

Mr Neeraj Lal

Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences
NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in General Surgery

Contact details

Address
2nd Floor, IBR West
Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Mr Neeraj Lal is an Academic Clinical Lecturer in General Surgery.  His major research interest is in the immunogenomics of colorectal cancer, with the aim of developing new immunotherapeutic strategies in this common cancer type.  He has held current and previous research funding from the National Institute of Health and Care Research, Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and the Royal College of Surgeons (England).

TEDx talk on Cancer Immunotherapy

Qualifications

  • PhD Cancer Sciences
  • MRCS (England)
  • MBBS
  • BSc Neuroscience

Biography

Neeraj completed core surgical training and then undertook his Cancer Research UK-funded PhD at the University of Birmingham in  Professor Willcox’s laboratory, with further supervision by Professor Gary Middleton and Professor Chris Tselepis.  This work investigated the immunogenomics of colorectal cancer, and led to multiple high impact publications that enhanced understanding of intra-tumoural immune responses. 

After completing his PhD, has was appointed as an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Professor Andrew Beggs’ group and the Academic Department of Surgery to further develop his work in the field of immunogenomics with the aim of successfully applying immunotherapeutics in colorectal cancer. 

He is currently focused on the development of and application of cancer organoid and immune cell co-culture models to identify and investigate novel targets for cancer immunotherapies. 

He is co-investigator on the ORB-AZ and Target ID studies, as well as the ROSSINI II  Randomised Clinical Trial.

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

Neeraj is supervising multiple clinical and non-clinical PhD students. He is interested in supervising doctoral research students in the following areas:

  • Solid tumour genetics/biology
  • Molecular pathology
  • Cancer immunology and immunotherapy

Research

Research interests

Cancer immunology; cancer genetics and genomics; bioinformatics; organoid models

Other activities

Specialty Registrar in General and Colorectal Surgery

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Pickles, OJ, Wanigasooriya, K, Ptasinska, A, Patel, AJ, Robbins, HL, Bryer, C, Whalley, CM, Tee, L, Lal, N, Pinna, M, Elzefzafy, N, Taniere, P, Beggs, AD & Middleton, GM 2023, 'MHC Class II is Induced by IFNγ and Follows Three Distinct Patterns of Expression in Colorectal Cancer Organoids', Cancer Research Communications, vol. 3, no. 8, pp. 1501-1513. https://doi.org/10.1158/2767-9764.CRC-23-0091

The LFD AI Consortium 2022, 'Machine learning for determining lateral flow device results for testing of SARS-CoV-2 infection in asymptomatic populations', Cell Reports Medicine, vol. 3, no. 10, 100784. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100784

Wanigasooriya, K, Sarma, D, Woods, P, O’connor, P, Matthews, A, Aslam, M, Dando, C, Ferguson, H, Francombe, J, Lal, N, Murphy, P, Papettas, T, Ramcharan, S & Busby, K 2022, 'The benefits of index telephone consultations in patients referred on the two-week wait colorectal cancer pathway', Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. https://doi.org/10.1308/rcsann.2021.0364

Cragg, J, Mushtaq, F, Lal, N, Garnham, A, Hallissey, M, Graham, T & Shiralkar, U 2021, 'Surgical cognitive simulation improves real-world surgical performance: randomized study', BJS Open, vol. 5, no. 3, zrab003. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsopen/zrab003

RIFT Study Group on behalf of the West Midlands Research Collaborative & Morton, D 2020, 'Appendicitis risk prediction models in children presenting with right iliac fossa pain (RIFT study): a prospective, multicentre validation study', The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2352-4642(20)30006-7

Brooks, J, Antao Mobre De Menezes, ARE, Ibrahim, M, Archer, L, Lal, N, Bagnall, C, Zeidler, SVV, Valentine, H, Spruce, R, Batis, N, Bryant, J, Hartley, M, Kaul, B, Ryan, G, Bao, R, Khattri, A, Lee, S, Ogbureke, KUE, Middleton, G, Tennant, D, Beggs, A, Deeks, J, West, CML, Cazier, J-B, Willcox, B, Seiwert, TY & Mehanna, H 2019, 'Development and validation of a combined hypoxia and immune prognostic classifier for head and neck cancer', Clinical Cancer Research, vol. 25, no. 17, pp. 5315-5328. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-18-3314, https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-18-3314

Horniblow, RD, Bedford, M, Hollingworth, R, Evans, S, Sutton, E, Lal, N, Beggs, A, Iqbal, TH & Tselepis, C 2017, 'B-RAF mutations are associated with increased iron regulatory protein-2 expression in colorectal tumourigenesis', Cancer Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/cas.13234

Lal, N, Willcox, C, Beggs, A, Taniere, P, Middleton, G, Tselepis, C & Willcox, B 2017, 'Endothelial protein C receptor is overexpressed in colorectal cancer as a result of amplification and hypomethylation of chromosome 20q', Journal of Pathology: Clinical Research, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 155–170. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjp2.70

Lal, N, White, BS, Goussous, G, Pickles, OJ, Mason, M, Beggs, AD, Taniere, P, Willcox, BE, Guinney, J & Middleton, G 2017, 'KRAS mutation and Consensus Molecular Subtypes 2 and 3 are independently associated with reduced immune infiltration and reactivity in colorectal cancer', Clinical Cancer Research. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-17-1090

Pachnio, A, Ciaurriz, M, Begum, J, Lal, N, Zuo, J, Beggs, A & Moss, P 2016, 'Cytomegalovirus infection leads to development of high frequencies of cytotoxic virus-specific CD4+ T Cells targeted to vascular endothelium', PLoS pathogens, vol. 12, no. 9, e1005832. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1005832

Lal, N, Beggs, AD, Willcox, BE & Middleton, GW 2015, 'An immunogenomic stratification of colorectal cancer : implications for development of targeted immunotherapy', OncoImmunology, vol. 4, no. 3, e976052. https://doi.org/10.4161/2162402X.2014.976052

Bhangu, A, Nepogodiev, D, Lal, N & Bowley, DM 2012, 'Meta-analysis of predictive factors and outcomes for failure of non-operative management of blunt splenic trauma', Injury, vol. 43, no. 9, pp. 1337-1346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2011.09.010

Lal, N, Singh, P, Sellahewa, C & Patel, R 2012, 'Mortality following Hartmann's procedure – correlation of Dr. Foster's report with CR-POSSUM', International journal of surgery (London, England), vol. 10, no. 9, pp. 480-483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2012.06.004

Huang, WL, King, VR, Curran, OE, Dyall, SC, Ward, RE, Lal, N, Priestley, JV & Michael-Titus, AT 2007, 'A combination of intravenous and dietary docosahexaenoic acid significantly improves outcome after spinal cord injury', Brain, vol. 130, no. 11, pp. 3004-3019. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awm223

Abstract

Mehanna, HM, Brooks, J, Menezes, A, Ibrahim, M, Lal, N, Archer, L, Zeidler, SV, Bao, R, Khattri, A, Valentine, H, Spruce, R, Batis, N, Bryant, J, Beggs, AD, Tennant, D, West, C, Middleton, GW, Cazier, J-B, Willcox, B & Seiwert, TY 2018, 'Development and validation of a combined metabolic and immune prognostic classifier for head and neck cancer', Journal of Clinical Oncology, vol. 36, no. 15 Suppl, pp. 6049-6049. https://doi.org/10.1200/jco.2018.36.15_suppl.6049

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