Jamie Honeychurch

I am a Senior Lecturer within the Targeted Therapy Group.

I lead a programme of research developing radiotherapy and immunotherapy combinations for the treatment of cancer, with an emphasis on trying to understand how radiation can enhance anti-tumour immunity.

I contribute to the direction of other post-doctoral research projects within the lab.

I supervise a broad range of students from BSc pathology through to PhD.

I have a variety of additional roles incuding: Deputy Director and Tutorial Unit Lead for the MRes Oncology Programme; Academic Advisor, PBL tutor and PEP supervisor for the Manchester MBChB programme; lecturer on MSc Clinical Immunology, Genomic Medicine, and Cancer Biology & Radiotherapy Physics programmes; member of the Education Committee for the Division of Cancer Sciences; and committee member of the Manchester Immune Oncology Group.

My research interests lie in the field of onco-immunology. I have a long-standing interest in developing novel radiation and immunotherapy combinations for the treatment of cancer, primarily using monoclonal antibodies (mAb) targeting various immune receptors to enhance the activity of tumour-specific T-cell priming and function following radiotherapy. More recently, my research has focussed on evaluating the induction of immunogenic cell death (ICD) following radiation therapy and assessing the impact this has on therapeutic outcome during combination approaches. This involves investigation of numerous damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMP), and in particular, the role of high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) in driving T-cell responses post-radiation and chemotherapy. I am interested in various apsects of HMGB1 biology including the kinetics and mechanism of release; redox staus and post-translational modification; potential utility as a biomarker of response; and the ability to promote tumour repopulation and growth. I am also interested in the mechanism of action of anti-CD20 mAb, especially type II mAb which induce direct cell death in a variety of B-cell malignancies and evaluating the immunological consequences of CD20-induced death, including DAMP release. Potential combination approaches to enhance cell death are also being explored.

MRes Oncology: Deputy Programme Director; Programme Committee Member & Tutorial Unit Lead; Research Project Supervisor; Academic Advisor; Admissions interviewer

Lecturer on the MSc Clinical Immunology Programme (Tumour immunology and microenvironment; Immunogenic cell death); MSc project Supervisor

Lecturer on the MSc Genomic Medicine, Molecular Pathology of Cancer module (The immune contexture of the tumour microenvironment)

MBChB:

Year 1 PEP Supervisor and Assessor

Year 2 PEP Supervisor

Year 2 PBL Tutor

OSCE examiner

Academic Advisor

Admissions Interviewer

Supervisor for intercalacting BSc Pathology MBChB undergraduate research projects

Supervisor and Advisor for PhD and MD students

Member of Senior Management Team for Division of Cancer Sciences (Research Staff representative)

Research Staff Representative on Faculty Research Staff Forum

Member of Manchester Immuno-Oncology Group

MRes oncology programme committee member

British Society for Immunology

British Association for Cancer Research

European Association for Cancer research

Cell culture

Flow cytometry

Western blotting

In vivo tumour model development

Immune assays

Immunotherapy is currently the most exciting area in cancer research - so as a passionate cancer immunologist its a great time to engage with the public, inform them of the tremendous work that we do in Manchester and inspire the next generation of cancer researchers!

Recent activities include:

Manchester Museum for European Researchers’ Night: Science Uncovered (Sept 2018)

Manchester University Community Festival (June 2018)

Platform for Investigation, Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (May 2018)

Manchester University School Science Fair (March 2018)

where we spread the word with our immunotherapy ballpool, taste test and cell balloons/badges!