Meet our Researchers: Past and Present
We are proud to share the names of our researchers, past and present, who have delivered incredible research projects into male cancer.
Current Researchers
Professor Dan Berney MA MB B Chir FRCPath
Head of the Robert Lane Tissue Bank
Professor Berney is an Honorary Professor of Genito-urinary Pathology. He has lectured throughout the world and is an internationally recognised pathology expert in the three male genito-urinary cancers.
He played leading roles in the reclassification of germ cell and testicular tumours and the recent fundamental changes to prostate cancer grading. This work was recognised when he was awarded ‘The Gleason Medal’.
Professor Berney has led the classification for testicular tumours in 2021/22 as a member of the editorial board of the World Health Organization (WHO).
He has published over 286 papers, with an H score of 72 (ie 72 papers cited more than 72 times) and his papers have been cited by other authors over 26,500 times.
Dr. Belinda Nedjai
Dr. Belinda Nedjai is an Associate Professor specializing in Cancer Biomarkers and Epigenetics. She also serves as the Director of the Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory within the Wolfson Institute of Population Health (WIPH).
Dr. Nedjai earned her Ph.D. in Functional Genomics from Queen Mary, Bart’s, and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, UK. Her academic journey includes a Master’s degree in Cellular and Molecular Physiopathology from the University of Sciences, Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI, France, and another Master’s degree in Biochemistry with a focus on Immunology and Genetics from the University of Science, Aix Marseille II Luminy, France.
Dr Prabhakar Rajan PhD FRCS (Urol) FHEA
Dr Rajan is Consultant Urologist at Barts Health and University College London Hospitals NHS Trusts and Clinical Senior Lecturer in Urology at Queen Mary University of London. He is also a Turing Fellow of The Alan Turing Institute which promotes the role of data science and artificial intelligence across research disciplines. Prior to his work in London, Dr Rajan was based at the University of Glasgow where he lectured and conducted research into prostate cancer. His current research work explores the role of genetics and biomarkers in prostate cancer. He is also working on alternative approaches to chemotherapy for patients with advanced testicular cancer.
Professor Yong-Jie Lu MBBS MD PhD
Professor Lu is an international leader in prostate cancer genetics and circulating biomarker studies. Professor of Molecular Oncology at Barts Cancer Institute, London which is part of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.
He has published more than 120 papers in journals including the Lancet, Nature, Nature Genetics, PNAS and Journal Clinical Oncology and has co-authored four textbooks. His papers have been cited by other authors more than 10,000 times. He is currently focused on biomarker discovery and clinical applications and prostate cancer metastasis and resistance to therapies.
Past Researchers
We would like to thank the following professionals who have contributed to our research work since Orchid was founded.
Mr Manit Arya MBChB MD (Res) FRCS (Urol)
Mr Arya is a urologist at University College Hospital, London who specialises in minimally invasive techniques for prostate cancer. He works in a team with Professor Mark Emberton on developing the principles of ‘focal therapy’ in prostate cancer and specialises in HIFU and cryotherapy treatment for prostate cancer. He is a mentor for surgeons interested in learning focal HIFU.
Mr Paul Cathcart MBBS MD FRCS (Urol)
Mr Cathcart is a consultant urological surgeon at Guy’s Hospital, London. He specialises in prostate cancer and is one of the highest volume robotic prostate cancer surgeons in the UK performing over 100 robotic prostate cancer surgeries each year. Mr Cathcart is the clinical co-ordinator for the National Prostate Cancer Audit and the chief investigator in various clinical trials.
Professor John Kelly MD FRCS (Urol)
Professor Kelly is a consultant urological surgeon specialising in robotic surgery for bladder and prostate cancer. He is the lead for the London Cancer Urology Surgery Centre and the robotic surgery programme at UCLH. Professor of uro-oncology at University College London, Prof Kelly’s research group explores how new therapies for bladder and prostate cancer can improve outcomes for patients. He is the Clinical Lead for urology at Westmoreland Street Hospital. This department is one the largest in Europe and delivers cutting edge surgery using the latest technologies.
Professor Thomas Powles MBBS MD MRCP
Professor Powles is Professor of Genitourinary Oncology and Director of Barts Cancer Centre at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He is also Lead for Solid Tumour Research. His main research interests are in genital and urinary cancers and he leads clinical studies from phase I to randomised phase III. Most of his studies are translational phase II studies investigating novel targeted and immune therapies.
Dr Simon Rodney MB BS MA MRCS MSc
Dr Rodney is a medical oncology registrar at the Royal Marsden Hospital. He trained at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London and recently completed a PhD in cancer genomics at the UCL Cancer Institute. He spent a semester at the Yale School of Medicine and is a member of both the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr Jonathan Shamash
Dr Shamash is a Consultant Oncologist and Lead in Acute Oncology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and works for the NHS at Queen’s Hospital, Romford. His sub-specialism is genito-urinary cancers and thoracic malignancies. He also chairs the supra-regional germ cell tumour multidisciplinary meeting and is a member of the NCRI testis clinical studies group. He leads various clinical studies in the management of testicular and prostate cancer and has published widely. Dr Shamash worked with Orchid for over 10 years.