About the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Team

Dr John Apps is an Associate Clinical Professor in Paediatric Neuro-Oncology at the University of Birmingham and Honorary Consultant in Neuro-Oncology at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. He completed a PhD with Prof Martinez-Barbera at UCL studying the biology of craniopharyngioma and identifying and testing novel therapies. Following completion of clinical training as a Paediatric Neuro-Oncologist he splits his time between clinical practice looking after children with brain tumours and research and research leading the Children’s Brain Tumour Research team at the University of Birmingham

His research interests include:

Imaging Science and Data Integration: Dr Apps is Chief Investigator of the Imaging of Tumours study, a national study supporting the development of advanced imaging approaches, the use of quantitative radiomic biomarkers and application of AI to tumour diagnosis. He is deputy data integration lead for the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres Paediatric Network

Craniopharyngioma and other rare tumours: Dr Apps continues to work collaboratively on a range of projects understanding the biology, clinical behaviour and new treatments for craniopharyngioma and other rare brain tumours, including diffuse midline glioma, medulloblastoma and rare embryonal tumours

Clinical Trials: Dr Apps is actively involved in a range of clinical trials and studies across a range of childhood brain tumours and works closely with the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Birmingham.

Dr Apps is actively involved in the training of clinicians and researchers, locally, nationally and internationally. He is co-chair of the SIOP Europe Brain Tumour Group, Young Investigators and Innovators Group

Professor Andrew Peet is a Emeritus Professor Clinical Paediatric Oncology Paediatric Neuro-Oncology, he retired from clinical practice and became Emeritus in 2023. Professor Peet founded the CBTRT dividing his time between being a doctor treating children with brain tumours and leading research projects by the CBTRT team.  His research interests are in developing magnetic resonance imaging for the improved diagnosis, treatment and understanding of childhood cancer.

Dr Teddy Zhao is a postdoctoral research fellow in Computational Oncology at the Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences and Birmingham Children’s Hospital, specialising in computational oncology. He completed his PhD under the supervision of Professor Andrew Peet at the University of Birmingham, focusing on the clinical translation of magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging. His work involved designing interdisciplinary machine learning algorithms and collaborating closely with clinical neuro-oncologists.

In his postdoctoral research, he has advanced this field by developing real-world diagnostic decision support systems and enhancing the diagnostic performance of magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging for rare brain tumours.

His primary research interests lie in the design and implementation of machine learning algorithms to facilitate the understanding of brain tumours through magnetic resonance spectroscopy, imaging, and multi-omic datasets. He aims to bridge research gaps between machine learning, magnetic resonance physics, clinical neuro-oncology, and data science, through which the research outcome can bring benefits to cancer patients.

His recent work has received support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the Little Princess Trust, and the Help Harry Help Others charity.

Dr Katie Crombie is a Clinical Research Fellow and paediatrician in training in the West Midlands with a special interest in Paediatric Oncology. She is currently taking time out of medical training to pursue a clinical PhD at the University of Birmingham, funded by the Azaylia Foundation and Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charities.

Her research focuses on the metabolic and imaging characteristics of paediatric gliomas in stable disease. As part of her PhD, she aims to determine whether distinct metabolic signatures of senescence and stable disease can be identified in glioma cells in vitro and whether these metabolic changes can be detected in vivo using ¹H MR Spectroscopy

Sara Burling is the Study Coordinator for the Imaging of Tumours study.  Sara is a Clinical Trials Co-ordinator based at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. As Study Co-ordinator for the Imaging of Tumours study works closely sites in the UK to continue delivering this longstanding study and also working to open new sites in the future. Her role also includes working in the Haematology/Oncology Trials team working on a range of early phase trials and biological studies. Prior to this, Sara was Clinical Trials Coordinator in the Liver Unit and was also the Biological Samples Coordinator in Haematology/Oncology. She started working at BCH in 2013 working on the Trust Bank in various admin roles in Medical Secretaries and Health Records which was in-between her time at Uni.

Lara Worthington is a clinical scientist at Birmingham Children’s hospital. Her role involves improving image quality, safety, research and development in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) within the trust.

After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and holding 2 years of prior experience working within the NHS, Eunice has recently joined as Imaging of Tumours Data Manager at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. She will be managing patient data such as tumour scans, patient information and working closely with clinical and research teams to help facilitate the study.

Chris Bennett

Ben Babourina-Brooks

Jane Crouch

Sarah Kohe

Karen Manias

Emma Meeus

Emma Metcalfe-Smith

Haydn Munford

Rob Murren

Stephen Powell

Heather Rose

Yu Sun

Natalie Tyldesley-Marshall

Stephanie Withey

Niloufar Zarinabad