Professor Nitzan Rosenfeld appointed as the new Barts Cancer Institute Director

Professor Rosenfeld graduated in physics before undertaking a PhD in Systems Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He then switched fields to translational cancer research while working at Rosetta Genomics. He held different roles at the organisation, including Head of Computational Biology, in which he designed diagnostic algorithms and clinical assays for cancer classification.

After moving to the UK in 2009, Professor Rosenfeld set up the Molecular and Computational Diagnostics Lab at the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Cambridge Institute and led ground-breaking research on circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), driving the rapidly growing field of liquid biopsies for cancer.

He is co-inventor of multiple patents on the use of microRNA and cell-free DNA in cancer diagnostics that have been deployed as clinical diagnostic tests. In 2014 he co-founded Inivata, a clinical cancer genomics company which quickly grew to 150 employees, raised over $150m and was eventually acquired by NeoGenomics for total of $415m.

His achievements have been recognised by numerous awards including election as a Fellow of the British Academy of Medical Sciences in 2020.

Professor Rosenfeld will work alongside Professor Lemoine before taking up the post of Director. We thank Professor Nick Lemoine for his amazing leadership of BCI since its establishment in 2005, making it one of the foremost translational cancer research institutes worldwide.

Professor Nitzan Rosenfeld said: “I am thrilled to be taking on this important role at Queen Mary. Under the leadership of Professor Nick Lemoine, the Barts Cancer Institute has become one of the UK’s leading institutes for cancer research. It’s an honour and a privilege to be given the opportunity to contribute to its future growth. Cancer research is rapidly evolving, as is our higher education landscape. I look forward to working with the excellent teams at Barts Cancer Institute and Queen Mary to ensure that we continue to provide training at the highest level, while keeping a focus on impactful research that can help improve the lives of individuals who have cancer or are at risk of cancer.”

Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, VP (Health) said: “I am delighted that Nitzan will be joining Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary, as the new Director of the Barts Cancer Institute. He is a huge talent and with Queen Mary colleagues he will play a key role in our strategy to detect cancer early, confirm residual disease after treatment, or identify recurrence.”

Professor Colin Bailey CBE, President and Principal of Queen Mary said: “I am delighted to welcome Professor Nitzan Rosenfeld to Queen Mary University of London, as the new Director of our Barts Cancer Institute. Nitzan has a fantastic track record of ground breaking cancer research, including using simple blood tests to detect cancers, recognised through numerous awards and Fellowship of the British Academy of Medical Sciences. His leadership will ensure that the Institute, together with wider research across the University, will continue to deliver exciting and innovative cancer research at Queen Mary.”