Professor Chrissie Thirlwell

Chrissie joined the College of Medicine and Health and Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Science at the University of Exeter in August 2019.

She graduated in Medicine from University College London Medical School, taking an intercalated BSc in Immunology. Her PhD in colorectal cancer genetics was funded by the Medical Research Council and undertaken at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute. Whilst completing her Medical Oncology specialist training she held a National Institute of Health Research Clinical Lecturer post until her Consultant appointment in 2010.

Until moving to Exeter Chrissie was a Senior Lecturer and Consultant Medical Oncologist at the UCL Cancer Institute and Royal Free Hospital and lead Consultant in the multi-disciplinary neuroendocrine tumour and hepatocellular cancer teams. Chrissie has a national and international reputation for research into and the management of neuroendocrine tumours and integrated genomic analysis of cancer.

Chrissie leads the Neuroendocrine tumour 100,000 genomes GeCIP and is the Cancer arm representative on the 100,000 genomes GeCIP board.

She is also a member of a Genomics England working group working towards the delivery and impact of the next 5 million genomes.

With her background in cancer epigenetics and genomics and the wealth of world-class experience in diabetes research at Exeter, her move here has enabled collaborations in order to investigate the increased risk of certain cancers seen in individuals with type 2 diabetes – tackling two of the biggest health challenges to society.