Institute welcomes new Research Fellow

The European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute has increased its research capabilities with the appointment of new Research Fellow, Dr Toby Phesse. Dr Phesse joins the Institute from the University of Melbourne where he was Senior Research Fellow and Co-Head of the laboratory.

Dr Phesse was awarded his PhD from the University of Warwick before securing a post-doc position in the laboratory of Professor Alan Clarke at Cardiff University. It was in Professor Clarke’s lab that he cultivated his primary research interest, studying how cell signalling regulates homeostasis, stem cell function, regeneration and cancer.

After three successful years at Cardiff, Toby obtained a Fellowship from the British Council to work at the Ludwig Institute in Melbourne to study the interaction between Wnt signalling and gp130/Stat3 signalling in gastrointestinal cancer. He subsequently maintained continuous National Health Medical Research Council funding for the following 6 years which enabled him to manage a small research group in a variety of institutes, including the prestigious Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and the University of Melbourne, studying the role of cell signalling in regeneration and cancer.

Dr Phesse’s work has focussed mainly on the gastrointestinal tract, although he has also investigated other organs including the liver, prostate and skin, with the underlying goal of identifying novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of cancer.

He uses a combination of advanced in vitro techniques, such as organoid cultures, together with sophisticated mouse models, to gain new insights into the requirement for cell signalling during the biology of the adult gastrointestinal epithelium, and thus understand how deregulated signalling results in disease.

On joining the Institute, Dr Phesse said, “It’s fantastic to be back at Cardiff University, in the splendid new European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute. My decision to return to Cardiff was not a difficult one given the high standard of research facilities and support here. I was also attracted by the overlapping research interests I have with other researchers in the department, which has already resulted in a consortium of us generating a new funding application, highlighting the exciting collaborations I am looking forward to fostering.”

Commenting on the new appointment Dr Matt Smalley, Deputy Director of the Institute said
“We are delighted to welcome Dr Phesse to the Institute. He will be a valuable addition to our team of talented Research Fellows and we are excited about the contribution his research can make to our overall goal of developing new cancer therapies that make a real difference to patients.”