Ferdia Gallagher
CRUK Senior Cancer Research Fellow, Reader in Molecular Imaging, Honorary Consultant
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
I am an academic radiologist and Cancer Research UK funded Senior Research Fellow leading the Clinical Molecular Imaging Group in the Department of Radiology. My laboratory develops new functional and molecular imaging methods to detect cancer and early response to therapy, with the aim of translating these techniques into humans. I am particularly interested in methods to probe cancer metabolism non-invasively, particularly clinical hyperpolarised carbon-13 MRI. Hyperpolarised MRI is an emerging method to non-invasively assess tissue metabolism using pyruvate as a probe to visualise tumour lactate formation and we are currently studying this technique in a number of human tumours. We have established a bespoke pharmacy facility on-site to enable this and are developing new molecules for use in patients. Our group is also interested in the application of proton spectroscopy to study tumour metabolism, as well as other multinuclear and multimodality approaches such as sodium MRI and PET/CT. We are applying these methods to monitor treatment response in a range of settings, including the use of immunotherapy. We are also studying novel cell labelling approaches to complement more conventional approaches to monitor immune infiltration into tumours.
Biography:
Dr Gallagher studied medicine at both the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford before training as a radiologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. He undertook a PhD in Biochemistry in Cambridge as part of a CRUK Clinical Research Training Fellowship. He has previously been awarded both a Clinician Scientist and an Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellowship from CRUK. He is currently a University Reader in Molecular imaging and an Honorary Consultant Radiologist.
Dr Gallagher sits on a number of international committees and is currently Chair of the Research Committee of the European Society for Hybrid Medical Imaging, Board member of the European Society of Radiology Research Committee and Past Chair of the MR of the Cancer Study Group of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM). He has received Outstanding Teacher awards from ISMRM in 2012 and 2016. Nationally, he sits on the CRUK New Investigator Committee and Academy of Royal Colleges Genomics Champion Group. ”
Scientific Expertise
NMR Metabolomics, PET/SPECT, MRI, Oncology
Mentoring Interests
Time Management, Project Management, Networking, Leadership Skills, Conflict Resolution, Career Transitions
In my free time, I enjoy…
Reading, cycling, skiing, playing with my kids!