Dr James Flanagan (@jimiflanUK)
Reader, Division of Cancer, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London
Dr Flanagan is the Principal Investigator of BECS. He completed his PhD in Cancer Biology at Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia and pursued postdoctoral work at University of Toronto and University College London before joining Imperial College London in 2009 as a group leader. His work has focussed on breast and ovarian cancer risk and epigenetics. He was a co-investigator of the BECS pilot project funded by Breast Cancer Now and will be leading the BECS team.
Dr Natalie Shenker (@DrNShenker)
UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London
Dr Natalie Shenker is the cofounder of the Hearts Milk Bank and Human Milk Foundation, a charity seeking to make access to donor milk more equitable and underpinned by research. She won a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship at Imperial College London in 2019 to establish a programme of collaborative research investigating the optimal use of donor milk to support maternal breastfeeding, infant outcomes and maternal mental health. She is also focussed on establishing the BECS bioresources to facilitate wide-ranging global research, with an emphasis on maternal health and breast cancer research. Prior to her research career, she trained in medicine at Oxford University and spent 5 years working in the NHS while training in paediatric surgery.
Sam Griffin
Research Midwife, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London
Sam joined Natalie's group in 2020. She is working to establish the physical collection of milk and blood samples through partnership with the team at the Hearts Milk Bank. She is also a trained midwife with over a decade of working to support families in the NHS.
Watch this space for team members joining in Autumn 2024!