Gehad studied cancer stem cell heterogeneity in oral and breast cancer using 2D and 3D in vitro models. His main focus was on identifying plastic EMT stem cells in FFPE tissue, deriving these cells from patient biopsies and using machine learning to create a classifer to predict recurrence using protein expression derived from immunofluorescence staining. 

Gehad obtained a BSc in molecular genetics from King's College London (KCL) then his masters (MRes in Biomedicine) at University College London (UCL) . Gehad then did his PhD at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health in the laboratory of Dr Ryan O'Shaughnessy to investigate signalling pathways in autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis.  Gehad also spend time in Professor John Anderson's laboratory working with Dr Ximena Montano to evaluate prognostic markers in neuroblastoma and at the UCL Cancer Institute investigating the role of DNA methyltransferases in embryonic stem cells. Gehad joined the Biddle lab in 2017. He left in 2021 to take up a second postdoctoral position at the Milner Institute in Cambridge.

Interests:

• Cancer stem cells

• EMT and developmental plasticity

• Machine learning and statistics 

• Drug resistance 

Leah studied cancer stem cells in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Accumulating evidence suggests that cancer stem cells drive the metastatic spread of tumours. Metastasis is considered to be the primary predictor of outcome in OSCC cases, and is an important factor in treatment decisions, but it is currently very difficult to predict which tumours will develop metastases. During Leah’s 3 year PhD project she developed a test for metastatic cancer stem cells which allows us to discriminate between tumours which are likely to spread and those that are not, allowing us to identify the highest risk patients and tailor their treatment accordingly. 

Leah obtained a BSc in Biomedical sciences from the University of Kent, before studying for an MSc in Cancer, Molecular Pathology and Genomics at Queen Mary University of London. Leah then spent two years working on CAR-T therapies for rare childhood brain tumours at University college London, before starting her PhD in the Biddle lab. Leah passed her PhD viva in early 2022!