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Project Manager: Monica Dolton

Tel: + 44 (0) 1865 221310

Email: monica.dolton@nds.ox.ac.uk

Biography

I studied medicine at the University of Southampton, qualifying as Bachelor of Medicine (Distinction) in July 2001.  After House Officer and Specialist Registrar (Histopathology) posts in Salisbury, Bournemouth and Southampton, in 2008 I became Consultant Histopathologist at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton.  During this time, I successfully completed a Masters of Medical Education (MMedEd) qualification from the University of Dundee (November 2006), became a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath - May 2007) and was awarded my CCT (Histopathology) in February 2008. 

In January 2011 I moved to the OUH NHS Trust and since then I have been the Lead for Uropathology, previously the Lead for Molecular Pathology (Oxford Genomic Medicine Centre), an Educational Supervisor (for Cellular Pathology) and Consultant in Cellular Pathology, specialising in urological and molecular pathology.  I am the Thames Valley supra-regional lead for germ cell tumour pathology and Senior Clinical Lecturer, University of Oxford.  In 2015 I became a full-time member of NDS and joined the NDS Management Committee

Other roles and titles I hold 

2016 to present day – Deputy lead for Testicular Genomic Clinical Interpretation Partnership (GeCIP) for 100,000 Genomes Project (Genomics England)

2015 to 2017– Human Tissue Act Designated Individual, University of Oxford research license 12217

2015 to 2023– Chief Investigator of Oxford Radcliffe Biobank

2014 to present day – Member of NCRI Clinical Studies Group for testis

Clare Verrill

BM, FRCPath,MMedEd


Associate Professor of Cellular Pathology

  • Honorary Consultant Cellular Pathologist with Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • Turing Fellow (Alan Turing Institute), 2021 - 2023
  • Co-Lead for the testis Genomic Clinical Interpretation Partnership (GeCIP)
  • Chair Person of BAUP (British Association of Urological Pathologists), Nov 2023 -

Research Summary

My research focuses on pathology, digital pathology and AI. One of my aims is to highlight the pivotal role pathology plays in medical science research for the benefit of patients and by doing this, improve the pathology input to studies and overall improvements in the quality of research. My work in digital pathology and AI has led to the NHS Cellular Pathology Laboratory in Oxford achieving the significant milestone of digitally scanning 100% of surgical histology workload. As the Oxford Principal Investigator for PathLAKE (one of the UK Government’s AI Centres of Excellence) I worked with Professor Jens Rittscher (Professor of Bioengineering, University of Oxford) and PathLAKE Oxford team members to build algorithms for use in myriad projects. This includes workflow tools, including the new “PathProfiler: Quality Assessment of Histopathology Whole-Slide Image Cohorts” and automated immunohistochemistry requesting for prostate biopsies together with work to derive novel insights into disease biology such as novel AI based subtypes of cancer. I was lead for engagement in PathLAKE and we have undertaken many exciting activities such as running a competition for school pupils during the Covid-19 lockdown and also taking part in a podcast for the Royal College of Pathologists’ International Pathology Day 2021.

I have a number of other AI based pathology projects, including several which link morphology and molecular changes in colorectal cancer, prostate and benign inflammatory conditions, the latter through a collaboration with Filer/Buckley and the Arthritis Therapy Acceleration Programme (A-TAP) and am Co-PI, with Dr Srinivasa Rao Rao on a new Histogenomics project, funded by Prostate Cancer UK

I am the local PI of PathLAKE PLUS which aims to digitise our South4 Pathology Partnership (Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Great Western Hospitals Swindon, Milton Keynes University Hospital and Buckinghamshire Healthcare). This will be one of the first fully digital pathology networks in the UK. We previously published our experiences of piloting a fully digital supra-regional germ cell tumour network (Diagnostics journal). 

I am PI of the ARTICULATE PRO Study which commenced in September 2021: a phase 4 AI in Healthcare study to evaluate Paige Prostate AI in NHS settings. This evaluation of clinical care is taking place in the John Radcliffe Hospital and at hospitals in Coventry and Bristol. We are working with our industry partner PAIGE on the study and have built a team of experts at all three sites. We expect this study to have significant impact on understanding how AI and digital pathology can be rolled out across the NHS in future and how AI might aid pathologists in their diagnoses. The study team includes prostate cancer survivors and their input is vital to its successful delivery.  Visit our website to find out more and about other patient and public involvement and engagement activities that we have undertaken such as a survey of Prostate Cancer UK supporters on the use of digital pathology and AI in Cellular Pathology.

Collaborative Projects and Pathology Support

The studies I am currently working on include: PART (partial prostate ablation versus radical prostatectomy) (CI Hamdy/Bryant), SPACE (PI Lamb) and PROMOTE (CI Lamb/Hamdy) – to test new imaging techniques in high-risk prostate cancer patients.

I work on several large international collaborations, for example with the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) Prostate Group. (See: Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes. ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium. Version 2. Nature. 2020 Feb;578(7793):82-93.)