Professor Reuben Tooze

Profile

Professor Reuben Tooze is a clinical academic leading a research group focusing on the origins and biology of cancers derived from B-cells of the immune system. Complementing this research Reuben holds an honorary consultant appointment at the Haematological Malignancy Diagnostic Service (HMDS) of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

After completing undergraduate medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, University of London, Reuben began his training as a histopathologist in Cambridge in 1993. This was combined with a PhD in immunology under the supervision of Prof Douglas T. Fearon, FRS. Reuben completed his clinical training in histopathology after moving to Leeds and has worked as an honorary consultant at HMDS since 2003.

Following successive MRC Clinician Scientist and Cancer Research UK Senior Clinical Fellowships, Reuben and a team of collaborators were awarded a CRUK programme grant in 2014 aimed at understanding the origins of plasma cell myeloma. This was followed in 2016 by award of a professorial chair in cancer pathology. During this time Reuben has also held administrative posts including a stint as Director of the former Cancer Research UK Leeds Centre.
 

Responsibilities

• Group Leader
• Honorary Consultant in Haematopathology

Research interests

Current research aims to understand the molecular mechanisms controlling the differentiation of B-cells to plasma cells and the control of plasma cell lifespan and how these processes relate to B-cell malignancies. There is a particular focus on the transcriptional control of the differentiation process, and how this is deregulated in post-germinal centre B-cell lymphomas and plasma cell neoplasms.

We aim to link an understanding of normal and aberrant control of the differentiation process to the identification and evaluation of new approaches to treatment, clinical diagnosis and biomarkers. Two general themes are the development of model systems and the integration of both in house and public data sets with bioinformatics approaches.

We work closely with the bioinformatics laboratory of Prof David Westhead. A particularly important contribution has been made by Dr Matthew Care, who has developed novel bioinformatics approaches that underpin key aspects of our current work (http://pgcna.gets-it.net/).

We collaborate particularly with clinical colleagues at the Haematological Malignancy Diagnostic Service (http://www.hmds.info/) and within the Haematological Malignancy Research Network (https://www.hmrn.org/).

Qualifications

• MBBS
• PhD
• FRCPath

Professional memberships

• Royal College of Pathologist
• American Association of Immunology

Student education

Reuben is actively engaged as a postgraduate research student supervisor, with PhD students of both clinical and scientific backgrounds.

Reuben contributes to the delivery of teaching within the Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's, and in the context of postgraduate clinical training in haematopathology.

Research groups and institutes

• Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's
• Cancer

Current postgraduate researchers

• Nicole McDermott
• Emily Robinson
• Kieran walker

Projects

<li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/208-limr-cancer:-inhibiting-cell-metabolism-to-enhance-tumour-cell-death">LIMR Cancer: Inhibiting cell metabolism to enhance tumour cell death</a></li>