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Professor Karen Kirkby was appointed to The Richard Rose Chair in Proton Therapy Physics in 2014, and leads the Manchester PBT Research Group. Karen has been involved in the study of ion beams for over 30 years.

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The research projects that I develop with my team aim at finding innovative tools able to protect normal tissue and enhance tumor control. In this context, we have developed a novel modality of radiation therapy called FLASH-Radiotherapy that minimizes normal tissue toxicity and eradicates tumors in various organs including the brain, lung and skin and in various species including mice, zebrafish, pigs and cats. Much of our recent work has focused on investigating the entirely different biological response induced after FLASH exposure. Importantly, we have worked to secure the translation of FLASH-RT into clinical trials for human patients with cancer.

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Ricky Sharma is a physician scientist leader of medical research at Varian Medical Systems. In addition to his role as Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Varian, he is an Honorary Clinical Professor at University College London and an Honorary Consultant in Clinical Oncology at University College London Hospitals, where he is a clinical oncologist.
Over the past decade, Prof Sharma has led practice-changing international clinical trials and global initiatives to bring stakeholders together to improve combination treatments for patients with cancer.

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Dr Anna Subiel is Senior Research Scientist at the UK’s National Metrology Institute, National Physical Laboratory, carrying out research work in the area of radiation dosimetry. She is leading a number of research activities in the UK, including developments of metrology for advanced radiotherapy with ultra-high dose rates, which involve very high energy electrons, laser-driven beams and FLASH radiotherapy sources. She is also an Honorary Lecturer at UCL Research Department of Oncology.Over the past decade, Prof Sharma has led practice-changing international clinical trials and global initiatives to bring stakeholders together to improve combination treatments for patients with cancer.

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Dr. Andreas Schüller is an experimental physicist. He received 2010 his PhD from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin with a thesis on ion beam surface interaction. Since 2011 he works as a scientist in the working group “High-energy photon and electron radiation” of the department for “Dosimetry for radiation therapy and diagnostic radiology” of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig, the National Metrology Institute of Germany. He is the coordinator of the European Joint Research Project UHDpulse – Metrology for advanced radiotherapy using particle beams with ultra-high pulse dose rates. 44 international publications.

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