We are delighted to be hosting the CRUK Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence annual symposium at the CRUK Cambridge Institute. Please see CBTCE Symposium May 15th 2026 for the link to the full programme. Please leave feedback for our event using this link.
We are very pleased to welcome the below speakers for the event.
Talk 1: Dr Jessica Taylor A preclinical antibody-directed theranostic platform for
WNT-medulloblastoma
Dr Jessica Taylor is an Assistant Research Professor at the CRUK Cambridge Institute, where her research in translational neuro-oncology focuses on developing precision diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for paediatric brain tumours. Dr Taylor integrates tumour biology, neurovascular dynamics, and preclinical modelling to improve survival while reducing long-term treatment-related morbidity and deepening understanding of blood-brain barrier remodelling during tumour progression and therapy.
Talk 2: Carla Fuentes-Guerra Bustos, Transcription factor targeting in paediatric-type diffuse high-grade glioma
Carla Fuentes-Guerra Bustos is a second-year PhD student at the ICR, working across Medicinal Chemistry 3 and the Glioma Team under the supervision of Gary Newton and Chris Jones. Originally from Spain, she moved to the UK to study Chemistry at the University of Glasgow. As part of her degree, she completed a year-long industrial placement at GSK (Stevenage), where she worked on PROTACs. She then returned to Glasgow for her final-year research project, focusing on covalent inhibitors of malarial kinases. Carla subsequently joined the ICR, where her current research focuses on targeting transcription factors in paediatric-type diffuse high-grade gliomas (PDHGGs).
Talk 3: Mingxuan Jiang, Understanding epistasis in kinase-substrate interactions to
design peptides that target drivers of brain cancer
Mingxuan did his undergraduate in Chemistry with Molecular Physics, where he did structural modelling of Diels-alderase enzymes. He is now a PhD student in the Creixell lab, investigating protein-protein interactions in phosphorylation dependent systems. His hobbies include understanding human history, and he has been visiting numerous museums and galleries over the years.
Talk 4: Dr Jack O’Hanlon, Optimisation of the Aurora A targeting PROTAC JB170 to
CCT400028, an in vitro degrader chemical probe
Jack did his PhD at Oxford University with Jeremy Robertson and Luet Wong working on mutant cytochrome P450 enzymes. He then did a post-doc at King’s College London working with Miraz Rahman on anti-microbial pro-drugs. Then he moved to the ICR as a Senior Scientific Officer working first on novel cereblon ligands before joining the Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence where his focus is on developing novel tools and therapeutics for paediatric brain tumours.
Talk 5: Emma Hall, Growing Up Too Soon: A Young Life Rewritten
Emma is a lived experience representative who was diagnosed with a pituitary tumour at age 12. Her treatment and recovery changed the course of her teenage years. At 19, while at university, she was diagnosed again and underwent extensive surgery to debulk the tumour. After a long recovery, Emma returned to university to complete her studies. Motivated by her experiences, Emma became a Young Ambassador for The Brain Tumour Charity, helping raise awareness and support others affected by brain tumours. She is now pursuing a career in brain tumour research to help improve future treatments and outcomes.
Talk 6: John Rainsbury, Will’s Story
John Rainsbury is Dad to Will who sadly died from a Medulloblastoma in 2019. John is now the Chair of Little Hero, set up in Will’s memory to help other families facing childhood cancer. Little Hero directly funds research into paediatric brain tumours, supports families with short breaks whilst in treatment and John sits as a parent representative on numerous trials and research initiatives. People can read up at www.littlehero.org.uk
Talk 7: Dr Michail Mamalakis, Learning across multi-scale modalities for AI in paediatric
brain cancer
Dr. Michail Mamalakis is an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Cambridge, affiliated with the CRUK Cambridge Institute, and a Postdoctoral Transition Fellow at the CRUK Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence, where he focuses on AI-driven neuroscience, bioinformatics, and medical image analysis in paediatric brain cancer. He obtained his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Sheffield, specialising in deep learning, computer vision, and medical imaging. His research integrates foundation models, explainable AI, and multi-modal learning across biological scales, including imaging and single-cell omics. Dr. Mamalakis has contributed to multiple interdisciplinary projects in brain tumour research, protein language modelling, and clinical AI, with publications in leading journals and conferences such as IEEE, Elsevier, and the Nature portfolio.
Talk 8: Felix Adams, Blood biomarker profiling for prompt detection of paediatric
brain tumours
Felix is a second-year PhD student at the University of Manchester as part of the CBTCE, specialising in the early detection of paediatric brain tumours. His primary research focuses on utilising inflammation-associated biomarkers linked to paediatric brain tumours as a strategy for early diagnosis.
In addition to this, his work has involved establishing Oxford Nanopore Technologies whole genome sequencing workflows for the rapid intraoperative diagnosis of paediatric brain tumours using ROBIN.
Prior to starting his PhD, Felix completed a BSc in Biology followed by an MSc in Bioinformatics at the University of Bristol. He then worked at a Swiss startup focused on the early detection of colorectal cancer using immunotranscriptomics, before moving into a bioinformatics role at an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) startup.
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