After starting as a trainee industrial chemist, Sarah joined Cellular Pathology in 2008 as an Medical Laboratory Assistant. Sarah joined the Newcastle Biobank on secondment in 2017 and helped to set up the technical processes. Sarah is currently a Healthcare Science Associate working partly with the Cellular Pathology Quality Team and Partly with the NovoPath Proximity Lab/integrated Biobank.
BSc Hons
After graduating with a degree in Forensic Science, Laura joined Tissue services NHS Blood and Transplant as a tissue technical officer. She then took up a role as Post Mortem Technician at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency. Laura then started her career with Histology as an Associate Practitioner Healthcare Scientist at The Royal Derby Infirmary before accepting a position at the RVI. In 2018 she joined the Molecular Pathology Node Lab.
BSc Hons
Rowen first joined the histology department during her placement year at university where she achieved her IBMS registration portfolio. She then accepted a part time position whilst continuing her studies. After graduating she accepted a position as a Registered Biomedical Scientist within the Molecular Pathology Node 2018.
Qualifications: BSc (Hons), IBMS Licentiate
Sabina started her career at the RVI as a Phlebotomist at the Main Outpatient Department. She then accepted a position as a Medical Laboratory Assistant in Cytology/ Histology Labs at the Cellular Pathology Department. After graduating and completing the Institute of Biomedical Scientist’s Registration Portfolio, she took up a temporary post as a Biomedical Scientist in Histology Slide Production. In 2018, she was appointed to the new and exciting post as a Biomedical Scientist to support in Clinical trials at the Molecular Node.
BSc Hons
After graduating with a degree in Sports Science, Stacey joined the Cytology/Histology department at the RVI. She then accepted an MLA position within Histology before accepting an 18 month secondment into the research lab. She was then promoted to an Associate Practitioner Healthcare Scientist within Molecular Pathology Node in 2017
Qualifications: BSc (Hons), IBMS Licentiate Specialist
Tom started his career at the RVI as an MLA in 2008, following graduation from the University of Newcastle. In 2010 he took up the newly created post as the designated individual responsible for clinical trials in Cellular Pathology, as a trainee Biomedical Scientist. Tom’s role was incorporated into the newly created Molecular Pathology Node in 2016. In 2018 Tom was appointed Specialist Biomedical Scientist in the Molecular Pathology Node.
Qualifications: MSc Biomedical Science, BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science, IBMS Fellow
Following her graduation in Biomedical Science from the University of Sunderland; Claire started her career at the James Cook University hospital in Middlesbrough as a trainee Biomedical Scientist in Cellular Pathology in 2002. In 2005 she moved to Guernsey in the Channel Island and worked in the Queen Elizabeth hospital as a multi discipline Biomedical Scientist specialising in Cellular Pathology. During this time she earned her MSc in Biomedical Science before returning to England in 2011 to work in the Leicester Royal Infirmary as a senior Biomedical Scientist. In 2014 she joined the Newcastle RVI and worked her way up to Senior Biomedical Scientist in the Molecular Pathology Node, Specialising in implementing and managing research projects in Cellular Pathology.
BSc Biomedical Science, MSc Biomedical Science, FIBMS
Sarah Leigh is the Laboratory Manager for Cellular Pathology; located in the Royal Victoria Hospital, part of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. After graduating with a degree in Biomedical Science, Sarah Leigh began work as a trainee BMS in the laboratory she now manages. During her career progression she achieved her MSc whilst working in paediatric brain tumour research, supported clinical trials, national biobanking, and actively published. After 10 years she went to work for GOSH where she began her management journey via Swindon, Oxford and then back ‘home’ to the Northeast. Sarah Leigh is passionate about pathology and was instrumental in integrating the research node and biobank into Cellular Pathology to bridge the gap between ISO-accredited diagnostic expertise, developmental research and biobanking.
PhD, DipRCPath, CSci FIBMS, BSc (Hons) Genetics
After graduating from the University of Sheffield with a Genetics Honours degree he went to undertake a PhD in Evolutionary Developmental Biology as a joint venture between the Universities of Newcastle and Sunderland. Having fallen in love with the Northeast Chris stayed in Newcastle and began his NHS career as a Clinical Cytogeneticist in 2001 and became a Diplomat of the Royal College of Pathologists as well as a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science. He moved into Quality Management in 2013, becoming an Assessment Manager for the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) in 2018, before returning to the NHS in 2020 to undertake his current position. Chris continues to be a UKAS technical assessor for healthcare.
Chris is a clinical research fellow in Newcastle University and an honorary Consultant Haematologist in Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Foundation trust. He completed his clinical training in Newcastle, before doing a research placement and PhD between Brigham and Women’s hospital / Dana Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, USA) and Newcastle University. He is interested in the composition and structure of the microenvironment in lymphomas, and use of novel technologies to identify patients who are less likely to respond to chemotherapy and immunotherapies. As part of the Novopath laboratory he is involved in designing and coordinating multiplexed immunostaining projects and most recently has become interested in applied machine learning and computational pathology.
I am an academic haematopathologist who trained in Histopathology at Hammersmith, Charing Cross and University College London Hospitals and received subspecialty Haematopathology training at the latter from Peter Isaacson and Ahmet Dogan. I subsequently held a Senior Clinician Scientist Fellowship from The Royal College of Pathologists / The Health Foundation / The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland in Molecular Histopathology at the University of Cambridge / Addenbrooke’s Hospital. I am now an Honorary Consultant Haematopathologist within the Northern England Haemato-Oncology Diagnostic Service and a Senior Lecturer in Haematopathology in the Northern Institute of Cancer Research, Newcastle University, where I lead a team investigating the biology and genetics of aggressive lymphoma, especially T-cell, paediatric and immunodeficiency-associated lymphoma. My main diagnostic interests are lymphoma pathology, the pathology of immunodeficiency and molecular pathology.
BDS, MSc, PhD, FDSRCS, FRCPath
Consultant Pathologist
Max Robinson provides specialist head and neck pathology services at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He is pathology lead for several UK clinical trials and is a member of the National Cancer Research Institute Head and Neck Group and the Cellular Molecular Pathology Initiative. He is co-chair of SPIRIT-Path, which aims to develop international guidelines on the inclusion of pathology in clinical trial protocols. He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University, where his research is focused on developing novel biomarkers for the early detection of oral cancer and examining the role of human papillomavirus in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. He has strong links with tissue diagnostic companies and is a consultant for Leica Biosystems Limited.
