Chair: Professor Peter Johnston, RCPath Vice President for Workforce and Corporate Engagement

Time	Session
13:30	Arrival and registration – refreshments available
14:00	Welcome from Professor Peter Johnston, RCPath VP for Workforce and Corporate Engagement Keynote address – Immunohistochemistry in the Genomic Era, Professor Manuel Salto-Tellez, Institute of Cancer Research Session organised by MSD UK
14:45	Translating research into patient care Confirmed speakers: Dr Shirley Hopper, Expert Medical Assessor, Biological Products, MHRA Professor Tim Kendall, Chair of Pathological Society Clinical Trials Pathology Subcommittee Professor Louise Jones, Professor of breast pathology, Queen Mary University of London and Genomics England
15:30	Coffee break
16:00	Panel discussion on opportunities and barriers in treatment-guiding biomarkers in UK cancer services Introduction and context setting from Dr Bernie Croal, RCPath President Panel discussion chaired by Professor Peter Johnston Confirmed panellists: Professor Peter Johnson, National Clinical Director for Cancer, NHSE Professor Naomi Allen, Chief Scientist, UK Biobank Professor Mike Hubank, Scientific Director, The Royal Marsden and Reader in Translational Genomics, ICR Helen Dent, CEO, BIVDA Joseph Burt, Head of Diagnostics and General  Medical Devices, MHRA
17:00	Close

Disclaimer: MSD provided sponsorship to support costs of this event, without influencing the agenda or arrangements (other than MSD-specific keynote session).

Please note: Panellists for the final session are subject to change.

Naomi Allen is Chief Scientist for UK Biobank and Professor of Epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, UK.

Naomi joined the UK Biobank in 2011 as Senior Epidemiologist and in 2019 become Chief Scientist. She is responsible for co-ordinating the linkage of routine electronic health-related records into the study for long-term follow-up and for helping to define the scientific strategy for the introduction of new enhancements. 

She has co-authored over 350 publications and has a keen research interest in the role of diet, adiposity, hormones and other biomarkers on cancer risk using large-scale prospective cohort data.

Dr Bernie Croal is an NHS Chemical Pathologist from Aberdeen specialising in intravenous nutritional support. He is a science and medicine graduate, and trained in general medicine, chemical pathology and Health Services/Public Health Research. He has spent a long career in various leadership roles within NHS Scotland including clinical director and regional lead for pathology, NHS Scotland demand optimisation lead and chair of the Scottish Clinical Biochemistry Network (SCBN). He is also a Past President of the Association for Laboratory Medicine. He is a fellow of 3 colleges of physicians and the Institute of Biomedical Science. Within RCPath he has chaired many committees and served as Vice-President from 2011-14 and is now President until November 2026.

Dr Shirley Hopper is a pharmaceutical physician in the biological medicines unit at the MHRA where she assesses the clinical efficacy and safety aspects of licensing applications, and provides advice to developers on their clinical development plans. She has particular expertise in vaccines and oncology products, and leads on the MHRA's guidance for individualised mRNA cancer immunotherapies (personalised cancer vaccines). Shirley has contributed to European guidance on pharmacogenomics and retains a special interest in biomarkers.

Peter Johnson is Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Southampton, National Clinical Director for Cancer at NHS England and Chair of the UK Office for Life Sciences Healthcare Cancer Goal. He helped to write the National Cancer Plan for England: Delivering World Class Cancer Care, published in February 2026. He was previously Chief Clinician for Cancer Research UK from 2008 to 2017 and set up the UK’s first dedicated Centre for Cancer Immunology in Southampton. His research interests are in applied immunology and immunotherapy; lymphoma biology and precision medicine, and clinical trials. He has been the Chief Investigator for trials ranging from first in human novel antibody therapies to international randomised studies. He is currently researching novel biomarkers to detect lung cancer, and leads the NHS Cancer Vaccine Launchpad, aimed at accelerating the next generation of cancer immune treatments.

Professor Peter Johnston is a consultant histopathologist (NHS Grampian). Diagnostic work includes haematopathology, general cellular pathology and diagnostic cytopathology. An Aberdeen graduate, he has a long commitment to undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, coordinating and innovating in undergraduate teaching over many years. Current ACT-funded work is in developing laboratory medicine teaching and learning in the medical programme in the University of Aberdeen. Recent postgraduate roles include Depute Postgraduate Dean, Scotland Deanery (North). He is co-chair of the UKMED Research Group and formerly interim Director of the Scottish Medical Education Research Consortium and is part of the Centre for Healthcare Education Research and Innovation in the University of Aberdeen. His past College roles include chair of the Scotland Regional Council and Vice-President for Professionalism, along with roles and leadership in several College committees. Corporate engagement bringing benefits to pathologists and pathology is currently a major activity.

Prof Johnston’s medical workforce development research is in medical careers decision-making, including novel methods to study how students and residents value generic characteristics of training posts. Current work is Pathology-focused, exploring workforce demographics and wellbeing. Clinical learning environments, educational culture, safety of patients and staff couched in human factors principles in educational and clinical settings, and doctors’ wellbeing in COVID-19 and beyond are other areas of study.

Prof Kendall is Personal Chair of Liver Pathology at the University of Edinburgh and an NHS Lothian Consultant Liver Pathologist at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. His research interests are steatotic liver disease, liver fibrogenesis, and primary liver cancer but he also provides histopathological support for other preclinical, translational, and clinical studies. He is the pathology and ethics lead for SteatoSITE, a national MASLD data commons.

He is chair of the UK Liver Pathology Group and Pathological Society Clinical Trials Pathology subcommittee, and is pathology representative on committees of European and national liver organisations including CCA-UK and the European Network for the Study of Cholangiocarcinoma. Prof Kendall graduated from Southampton University and trained in Southampton and Edinburgh.

Professor Manuel Salto-Tellez (MD-LMS, FRCPath, FRCPI) is the Chair of Molecular Pathology at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), a clinical consultant pathologist and the Lead of QUB’s Precision Medicine Centre of Excellence. He is also the Professor on Integrative Pathology at the Institute for Cancer Research in London (ICR), and the lead of the Royal Marsden Hospital / ICR Integrated Pathology Unit. Prof Salto-Tellez studied Medicine in Spain (Oviedo), Germany (Aachen) and The Netherlands (Leiden), in the context of grants from the European Union. He specialised in histopathology in the UK (Edinburgh and London) and in molecular pathology in USA (Philadelphia). For more than 10 years he worked at the National University of Singapore and its National University Hospital, where he was associate professor, senior consultant, and Vice-dean for Research.

Prof Salto-Tellez is author or co-author of more than 330 internationally peer-reviewed articles in translational science, molecular pathology and diagnostics, has published a similar number of abstracts in international conferences, and is editor or contributor to some of the key textbooks of pathology and oncology. Prof Salto-Tellez serves and has served in key committees related to cancer research, at national and international levels, and has generated more than £100 million in competitive grant funding, including major ongoing programmes with UKRI and NIHR. He is scientific adviser to 2 companies in the digital pathology and artificial intelligence space and has been part of most national (and many international) advisory boards organised by pharma and biotech in relation to the introduction of new molecular and tissue-based tests in the UK or globally, over the last 10 years.