Rate My Professor James Flanagan

Professor James Flanagan is Professor of Cancer Informatics in the Department of Surgery and Cancer, Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London. He completed his PhD in 2002 at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia, followed by postdoctoral positions in Toronto and at University College London. In 2009, he established his research group at Imperial College London as a Breast Cancer Now Scientific Fellow, advancing through positions as Senior Lecturer and Reader to his current professorship. As course director for the MRes Cancer Biology programme, he designed the Cancer Informatics stream in 2014, training students in cancer biology, wet lab research, and bioinformatics using tools like R programming in a flipped classroom approach. He leads the Translational Epigenomics group, focusing on epigenetics biomarkers such as DNA methylation to address questions in personalised medicine and carcinogenesis, particularly in breast and ovarian cancer. His research investigates epigenetic risk factors using whole genome-bisulphite sequencing, including signatures of lifetime oestrogen exposure in blood DNA linked to breast cancer risk, DNA repair-driven changes in response to platinum-based chemotherapy, environmental impacts from air pollution and tobacco smoking, and metformin effects on normal breast cells for prevention.