Dr Chris Jones

Profile

I am a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellow and Honorary Specialty Registrar in Clinical Oncology at the University of Leeds and Leeds Cancer Centre.

My interest in research began during my undergraduate medical studies, throughout which I balanced clinical training with extensive laboratory training, which included internships at the Universities of Birmingham and Manchester, Harvard University and MRC Harwell in Oxford. I graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2013 with a First Class Honours intercalated BMedSc in Cell & Molecular Pathology and MBChB with Honours. I additionally secured both the Sir Arthur Thomson Prize for ranking as the highest-achieving intercalating student in my cohort, and The Vice Chancellor’s Prize, the most prestigious award bestowed to an undergraduate by my alma mater.

As a postgraduate I have continued to gain considerable laboratory and clinical research training and experience. Between 2013 and 2015 I undertook the Academic Foundation Programme tied to the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. I subsequently moved to the University of Leeds and Leeds Cancer Centre in 2015 in order to commence an Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF) in Clinical Oncology and obtained my MRCP in 2016. During my ACF I secured Cancer Research UK funding to study aberrant signalling in Barrett’s oesophagus within Professor John Ladbury’s laboratory. This led to the award of a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellowship based at the Universities of Leeds and Manchester for a project based on ‘Non-classical Growth Factor Receptor Signalling in Barrett’s Oesophagus and Oesophageal Adenocarcinoma’. I commenced this PhD work in 2017 and have secured additional funding for my research from Cancer Research UK, NC3Rs and the Pathological Society.

My interest in oesophageal and other gastrointestinal (GI) cancers extends beyond the laboratory and I have completed a number of clinical analyses of outcomes in GI malignancies, particularly with respect to the effect of radiotherapy dose and fractionation. I was also the Lead Clinical Fellow in Birmingham for the EC FP7-funded DSD-Life study and led the LCC-CARIS-01 analysis of a commercial multi-platform molecular profile in gynaecological cancers.

Alongside my research and clinical commitments I have since 2018 sat as a trainee representative for the Royal College of Radiologists’ Clinical Oncology Academic Committee and as the trainee representative for the Oesophagogastric Subgroup of the NCRI Clinical Studies Group. I am also a member of the NCRI Clinical & Translational Radiotherapy (CTRad) Working Group and in 2017 founded The Northern Oncology Trainees Collaborative for Healthcare Research (NOTCH), an organisation I now Chair. I have also previously sat as an Expert Member of the Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee and on the Cochrane UK Trainees Advisory Group. Finally, I continue to sit on the faculty of Resuscitation for Medical Disciplines Birmingham, having chaired this large peer-peer life support training course as a final year medical student.

Research interests

Cellular biology of oesophageal adenocarcinoma

I undertake research into the biology of oesophageal cancer within Professor John Ladbury’s laboratory at the University of Leeds and Professor Andy Sharrock’s laboratory at the University of Manchester. I  utilise biophysical and molecular approaches to analyse the role that cellular stressors play in the development and progression of oesophageal adenocarcinoma. My current work is funded by a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellowship but was previously supported by Cancer Research UK, Pathological Society and NC3Rs.

Clinical outcomes in gastrointestinal cancers

I have been involved in a number of studies focussed on gastrointestinal cancer outcomes, including analyses of hypofractionated radiotherapy in lower-middle third oesophageal cancer, radiotherapy dose escalation in upper third oesophageal cancer and a national audit of chemotherapy toxicity in anal cancer.

Qualifications

• BMedSc (Hons) - Cell & Molecular Pathology: Honours Class I
• MBChB (Hons)
• MRCP(UK)

Professional memberships

• Chair, Northern Oncology Trainees Collaborative for Healthcare Research
• Trainee Representative, RCR Clinical Oncology Academic Committee
• Trainee Representative, NCRI Upper Gastrointestinal Clinical Studies Group
• Member, Royal College of Physicians
• Member, Royal College of Radiologists
• Member, NCRI Clinical & Translational Radiotherapy Working Group
• Member, Resuscitation for Medical Disciplines Faculty

Student education

I supervise students both at the bedside within my clinical practice and in the laboratory. I additionally organise a local oncology-themed teaching programme for junior doctors and deliver a number of lectures to the medical students.

Research groups and institutes

• Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's
• The Radiotherapy Research Group