Professor Tim Maughan (Clinical Director)

Professor Maughan is the Clinical Director of both the WCTU and the Clinical Research Collaboration Cymru Coordinating Centre. Professor Maughan’s research is in the treatment of patients with colorectal cancer. He is involved extensively at UK level in clinical trial design and execution in gastrointestinal cancers and is chair of the NCRI advanced colorectal cancer subgroup. He is the Chief Investigator of the MRC COIN and FOCUS 3 trials, evaluating novel treatments in metastatic colorectal cancer. He has previously worked in University College London, Southern Sudan and Cambridge.

029 206 87457

Gareth Griffiths (Scientific Director)

Joined the WCTU as Scientific Director in 2005. He is a Chartered Statistician with qualifications in biological sciences and statistics and has over a decade of experience in working in clinical trials in cancer. He has previously held the position of Scientific Lead/Senior Statistician at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit and has been a researcher within the NHS. Gareth is lead of the NISCHR Cancer Registered Research Group and has various committee memberships including a number of NCRI Clinical Study Groups, Wales Cancer Research Network and Wales Cancer Institute.

029 206 87457

Dr Anthony Byrne (Clinical - Palliative and Supportive Care)

Dr Anthony Byrne is Scientific Lead for Palliative Care Research at WCTU and holds clinical positions as Medical Director of the Marie Curie Hospice Penarth and consultant in Palliative Medicine at Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust. His research areas are in physical activity and functioning in advanced cancer, patient access to research and outcome measures. He is a member of the NCRI Palliative Care Clinical Studies Group and its cachexia and breathlessness subgroups.

029 206 87476

Dr Annmarie Nelson (Marie Curie Senior Research Fellow)

Deputy Director of the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Centre, based at the Wales Cancer Trials Unit. The team works closely with palliative care and academic colleagues to develop an infrastructure that coordinates and supports the design and conduct of pragmatic studies, which translate into better patient care. The centre, with a UK remit, will support research at all levels from small scale or MSC to large scale clinical trials.

029 206 87473

Angela Casbard (Senior Statistician - Cancer Therapies)

Joined the WCTU in February 2007 from the MRC Clinical Trials Unit, where she worked for five years as the statistician for trials in transfusion medicine. She has previously worked as a statistician on epidemiological studies at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and has a background in biochemistry. At the WCTU, she is the Scientific Lead and statistician for the ZICE trial and several bladder and colorectal trials and is involved in developing proposals for new trial ideas in cancer therapies.

029 206 87470

Chris Hurt (Primary Care)

Has worked as a statistician and software developer on epidemiological research projects and clinical trials at the University of Oxford, Imperial College, Cancer Research UK, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Currently, he is a Senior Statistician at the WCTU and is working on developing trials of treatments of pancreatic, vulval, and cervical cancer. He is also involved in establishing trials in primary care of cancer patients.

029 206 87471

Alison Jenkins (Senior Trials Manager)

Joined the WCTU in January 2009 as the Trial Manager for AML 17, Prior to this, she worked as a Trial Manager in Haematology for Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust for 10 years working on preceding haematological studies including AML trials.

029 206 87464

Dr Lisette Nixon (Senior Trials Manager)

Joined the WCTU as a Trial Manager in September 2006 and has managed the SCOPE 1 trial since then. She is a member of the NCRI Radiotherapy Trials Quality Assurance group and co-ordinates the WCTU Translational Working Group. She has a BSc in Pharmacology, a PhD in respiratory medicine/cell biology, and a PGCE(PCET) with experience of teaching in higher education. Previous research experience includes clinical laboratory research in the respiratory medicine department of Cardiff University and the testing of new chemical entities as an assistant pharmacologist in the pharmaceutical industry. She was promoted to the Senior Trial Manager role in July 2010.

029 206 87458

Dr Ruby AL-Mokhtar

Joined the WCTU in 2010 and is currently the trial manager for SCOPE1. She has an undergraduate Masters degree in Biochemistry and a PhD based upon the dysregulation of the insulin signaling pathway in type II diabetes. In addition to teaching undergraduates at the University of Bristol, Ruby has worked as a research assistant in both the NHS and in industry

029 206 87477

Sarah Bridges

Joined the WCTU in 2007 as a Data Manager for the FRAGMATIC trial, following two years as a Trial Administrator at Velindre Cancer Centre. In 2009 she became the Trial Manager for SCALOP, NMES and the Palliative Care portfolio. In 2010 she also became the Trial Manager of the FOLFERA trial.

029 206 87463

Dr Ruhena B. Chowdhury

Ruhena started as a Trial Manager in December 2007. Prior to this she worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Scientist at the Cancer Research UK headquarters in London, conducting research into Neurodegeneration and Parkinson’s disease. She has also worked as a Research Assistant in Academia and Industry as well as teaching undergraduates at the University of Oxford. She graduated with a BSc Hon in Genetics and Microbiology followed by a PhD in Molecular Biology. She is the trial Manager for FRAGMATIC, the largest lung cancer trial in the UK.

029 206 87460

Hayley Clements

Joined the WCTU in 2007 as the Trial Manager for ZICE and previously worked as Data Manager. Prior to working at the WCTU, she worked at Velindre Hospital as a Research Assistant and then as a Trial Administrator in the Clinical Trials Unit.

029 206 87462

Hala Jundi

Hala started as a Trial Manager in August 2011, and currently manages the SUCCINCT and BOLERO trials. Prior to working at the WCTU, Hala completed a PhD in molecular cardiology at the Wales Heart Research Institute.

029 206 87199

Dr Tracie Madden

Joined the WCTU as a Trial Manager within the Cancer Therapies team in April 2009. Currently, she is setting up two industry sponsored Phase II studies in urothelial (TOUCAN) and colorectal cancer (FOLFERA). In the future, she will also be responsible for coordinating and promoting the WCTU translational research portfolio. She has a PhD in translational/molecular biology of breast cancer and a BSc in Biochemistry-Microbiology together with over a decade of research experience working within the field of breast and prostate cancer. She is also a member of the Institute of Clinical Research where she hopes to achieve Chartered Scientist status.

029 2068 7953

Dr Jo Seal

Joined the WCTU in January 2008 as a Trial Manager and is responsible for the management of the WCTU bladder cancer trials portfolio, including the SUCCINCT, TOTEM, and BOLERO trials. She also contributes to a number of WCTU working groups, including the Document Review Group, Research Partner Group, the Trial Manager’s Group, and the Operation’s Group. She is trained in clinical trial development and management, and has a scientific research background, with a BSc in Microbiology, a MSc in Molecular Biology, and a PhD in Biological Sciences. Prior to joining the WCTU, she worked in academia as a Post Doctoral Research Scientist for four years, followed by employment in the industrial sector for eight years as a Project Leader developing in vitro diagnostic products.

029 206 87478

Dr Kirsty Roberts

Kirsty joined the WCTU in October 2011 as a Trial Manager and is responsible for the management of ELCID, a WCTU Primary Care Lung Cancer trial. She also contributes to the translational research sample collections for WCTU and is involved in early trial development for other studies. Prior to this she worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Scientist at the Centre for Reproductive Health in Edinburgh, conducting research into Maternal Obesity. She has an undergraduate degree in Medical Biochemistry and a PhD in Colorectal Cancer Epigenetics’.

029 206 87201

Nadim Bashir

Nadim joined the WCTU in July 2009, having previously worked for the South East Wales Trials Unit (SEWTU) as a Research Assistant. He graduated in 2008 with a BSc in Pharmacology and is currently involved in a distance learning MSc in Clinical Trials with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Nadim works on ZICE, the bladder trials (BOLERO and SUCCINCT), EXEMESTANE, and SCOPE 1.

Rob Cowles

Rob joined the Unit in July 2009 and works solely on the FRAGMATIC trial. He has experience in a number of different fields and is currently responsible for data management, assisting the Trial Manager in the day-to-day running of the study.

Georgina Gardner

Joined the WCTU in December 2008 as a Data Manager. Previous to this, she worked in the Clinical Trials Unit at Velindre NHS Trust for eight years, firstly as a PA and then as a Clinical Trials Administrator. She currently works on the RT3VIN, Bolero and EORTC Surtime trials.

029 206 87950

Terri Kitson

Joined the WCTU in September 2005 as a Trials Assistant working on the ZICE, FRAGMATIC and SCOPE-1 trials. She also provided administrative support for the Palliative Care team. Since then she has been promoted to Data Manager for the AML 17 Clinical trial. She is responsible for all aspects of data entry and assists the Trial Manager in the day-to-day running of the trial.

029 206 87465

Cat Rolfe

Joined the WCTU in early 2010 as Academic PA to the Clinical Director. She graduated from Middlesex University in 2004 and is a qualified Medical Herbalist. She previously worked for The Royal Marsden Hospital and as a UK Education Coordinator for Neal’s Yard Remedies.

029 206 87118

Athena Tsonis

Athena Tsonis joined the WCTU team in 2011 as a Data Manager on the ZICE and SKOPOS trials.Prior to this, Athena worked extensively in both Further Education and Higher Education settings in several countries.

029 206 87956

Tamara Al-Janabi

Tamara joined the unit in 2011 as Data Manager after working as a Research Assistant in Psychological Medicine. Her research experience in psychology, psychiatric genetics and health economics has developed a strong interest in clinical trials.

029 206 87459

Claire Johnson (Quality Assurance Manager)

Joined the WCTU in March 2009 as the Quality Assurance Manager. She is responsible for the continued development and implementation of the quality management system within WCTU, ensuring that all clinical trials are conducted to the appropriate regulatory, ethical and quality assurance standards under the UK Medicines for Human use (Clinical Trials) Regulations and EU rules and directives governing medicinal products and good clinical practice guidelines.

029 206 87468

Loys Richards (Safety Officer)

Loys joined the WCTU in February 2011 as a safety officer responsible for pharmacovigilance. She has a scientific research background with a BSc in animal physiology and a MSc in applied parasitology and medical entomology. Most recently she completed a PhD investigating aspects of the behavioural ecology of a shoaling fish species. On a daily basis she is responsible for the management of adverse event reporting for the majority of clinical trials run by the WCTU. She also contributes to annual safety reports for each trial, provides advice during trial development in order to comply with current regulatory requirements and contributes to the document review group within WCTU.

029 206 87474

Kevyn Lock (Head of IT & Data Services)

Joined the WCTU in January 2007 having worked within Velindre NHS Trust for the last 11 years. He has a long history of Information Management and Technology (IM&T) service provision within the NHS. Within the WCTU he is responsible for IT & Data Services, Human Resources, Finance and other Operational matters.

029 206 87466

Paul Williams (Senior Developer)

Joined the WCTU in 2009. Responsible for developing web-based trial management applications.

Gareth Timmins (Clinical Database Programmer)

Joined the WCTU as a Data Manager. He currently develops databases using Clinical Data Management software for the Clinical Trials at the WCTU, mainly using Infermed's MACRO. He is also responsible for the sourcing and deployment of software and updates, along with IT support for all staff members within the unit.

029 206 87466

Rachel Granger (Operations Manager)

Joined the WCTU in March 2007 from a background in chartered accountancy and human resources. Her responsibilities at the unit are in the areas of financial management, human resources, contractual and other operational matters.

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Linda Day (Secretary to the Scientific Director)

Joined the WCTU in November 2006 as Secretary to the Scientific Director. Previously, she was employed as South East Wales Cancer Research Network Secretary. Formerly she worked in the Clinical Audit Department at Velindre Hospital as administrator/secretary to the Clinical Process Teams.

029 206 87457

Ann White

Ann joined the WCTU in October 2011 as a Trials Clerical Officer. Previously she was employed as a Clerical Officer for South East Wales Trials Unit.

029 206 87465

Kelly Venables

Kelly joined WCTU in October 2011 as Research Secretary. For two years prior to this she worked as an administrator in the Research and Development Department at Leighton Hospital Crewe.

029 206 87479