Jack Flower

Research summary

I am a Postdoctoral Scientist working both within the Department of Oncology and Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences. As a member of Professor Simon Buczacki's Tumour Evolution and Cell Identity research group, my work explores stem cell signatures of mutational order in Colorectal Cancer (CRC) and routinely employ primary human colonic organoid models alongside CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genetic knockouts.

Biography

I graduated from the University of Birmingham with a BSc in Biomedical Science, where my dissertation focused on patient-derived CRC-associated fibroblasts in Professor Andrew Beggs’ research group. I went on to pursue an MSc in Cancer at University College London, conducting a computational research project with the Cancer Genome Evolution Group. My work analysed structural variation in the HCT116 cell line using long-read sequencing - an approach that overcomes the limitations of traditional short-read technologies - and was recognised with both the Dean’s Research Prize Award and the Dean’s List Award. I then studied my DPhil in Cancer Science at Oxford with Professor Simon Buczacki, investigating the tumour–immune microenvironment in CRC and the factors shaping tumour immunogenicity independent of mutational load.