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Mark is the Queen's Lead of the £5M Medical Research Council-Cancer Research UK funded Stratified Medicine in Colorectal Cancer Consortium (S:CORT), a UK-wide consortium investigating novel precision medicine approaches in colorectal cancer(CRC). His international reputation in CRC was instrumental in his leading a Critical Gaps in Colorectal Cancer Research Initiative, recently published in the high impact factor journal Gut; this landmark publication has attracted significant global attention (his podcast had the most “hits” of any article in the journal) Mark is Queen's Lead of the Health Data Research UK Substantive Site, one of only 6 in the UK, which aims to drive innovative precision medicine and public health approaches through the use of Big Data. He is also national lead for Cancer Strategy for HDR-UK. Mark was co-chair of the Cancer Task Team of the Clinical Working Group of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), an international cooperative dedicated to effective and responsible sharing of genomic and clinical data. He has authored a number of key papers including a blueprint for cancer date sharing (published in Nature Medicine) and a road map/call to action for a Global Cancer Knowledge Network in the New England Journal of Medicine Mark has published over 180 papers in international peer review journals, including key papers in the highest impact journals (New Engl J Medicine, Lancet, Nature Medicine, Lancet Oncology, Cancer Discovery, Nature Comms, Gut etc). He is co-lead of an ambitious proposal to develop a Global Innovation Institute in Belfast which will include the One Health Innovation Centre (OHIC), the world’s first Health and Agri-Food Informatics Innovation Centre. Mark’s work has been recognised by a number of national/international awards including the Vander Molen Prize for Leukaemia Research, the Ely Lilly Prize, the St Lukes Medal for Cancer Research and the Graves Medal for Medical Research. He is frequently invited as a guest speaker to international conferences and sits on a number of high level boards/committees at European level including the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine, the Scientific Board of the European Cancer Patient Coalition and the European Cancer Organisation (ECCO) Oncopolicy Forum Mark has a strong commitment to patient-centred research/care and to addressing cancer inequalities. He was the architect of the European Cancer Patient's Bill of Rights (BoR), a catalyst for change and empowerment tool for cancer patients which he launched in the European Parliament on World Cancer Day 2014. The BoR has been adopted across Europe and led to the 70:35 Vision, 70% survival for all cancer patients in Europe by 2035 which was recently adopted by ECCO, the largest interdisciplinary cancer organisation in Europe. Mark’s advocacy work was instrumental in the recent decision to include boys in national UK HPV vaccination programmes. He is also committed to the provision of optimal pathology and laboratory medicine for citizens in resource-limited settings and was senior author of a recent paper in The Lancet as part of The Lancet Series on Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in Low- and Middle- Income Countries.

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Dr Katy Hayward is one of the leading political sociologists on the island of Ireland, and is a Reader in Sociology, and Senior Research Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast. Dr Hayward’s research focuses on conflict/post-conflict transitions and is actively interdisciplinary, traversing fields of border studies, conflict studies, European studies, and Irish studies. This means that she is particularly well-placed to speak about the implications of Brexit for the island of Ireland, and Northern Ireland in particular, European integration, political violence, and the application of discourse analysis.

Media office Phone : +44 (0)28 9097 5845

Media email : comms.office@qub.ac.uk