Date: Thursday 3 April 2025
Time: 6 - 7pm
Venue: Cambridge Union Society, Union Chamber, 9A Bridge Street, CB2 1UB
FREE registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-sponges-to-ai-new-technologies-for-finding-cancer-early-tickets-1226556656979
Two of our group leaders at the Early Cancer Institute will be giving a key-note talk at the Cambridge Festival 2025. Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald and Dr Mireia Crispin will outline some of the innovations that are currently being developed to improve early cancer detection. They will talk about their research which investigates how and why cancers develop; who may be most at risk of developing them; and how we can catch them early, before they have had chance to grow and spread.
Speaker biographies
Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald
Rebecca became the inaugural director of the Early Cancer Institute at the University of Cambridge in 2022. She trained in Cambridge, Stanford University, St Barts and the London Hospitals and has focussed on earlier detection of oesophageal and gastric cancer which have some of the poorest outcomes of all solid tumours.
Her pioneering work to devise a first-in-class, non-endoscopic capsule sponge test for identifying individuals at high risk for oesophageal cancer has won numerous prizes, including the Westminster Medal, and this test is now being rolled out in the NHS and beyond by her spin-out Cyted Health ltd. Rebecca is passionate to bring translational science and entrepreneurship to the Early Cancer Institute so that we can fulfil our vision to predict and prevent cancer.
Dr Mireia Crispin
Mireia leads a research group in the Early Cancer Institute which uses different types of patient-derived data to understand how tumours evolve and respond to treatment. She co-leads the Ovarian Cancer Programme at the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Centre, and the Mark Foundation Institute for Integrated Cancer Medicine. She is also the Chief Digital Officer of 52 North Health, an award-winning biotech start-up developing affordable at-home tests for cancer patients. Dr Crispin worked previously at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and was the Director of the Healthcare Innovation programme of the Center for the Governance of Change at IE University (Madrid, Spain), focusing on policy challenges for the integration of AI and digital health in European healthcare.
FREE registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-sponges-to-ai-new-technologies-for-finding-cancer-early-tickets-1226556656979