Introducing our new Scientific Director
This month Gareth Gerrard took on the role as our new Scientific Director, but did you know he wasn’t always destined to be a scientist?!
Originally Gareth was interested in both medicine and psychology, but he landed a space on a Microbiology & Genetics degree instead. After university Gareth still wasn’t convinced that a career in science was for him, so he joined a theatre company where he enjoyed both performing and teaching people theatre skills.
His scientific career took back off when he spotted a Masters in Biomedical Science. He’d been volunteering with Oxfam when he decided to put back on his lab coat.
This led to his first scientific job, as a Trainee Biomedical Scientist in Haematology at the Royal Free Hospital, but he was quickly lured over to the research side with the offer of a PhD studentship in leukaemia. From that point on Gareth has never looked back and a series of research positions have firmly cemented Gareth’s love for genomics with a particular interest in cancer and enabled him to become a registered Clinical Scientist.
His career has also seen him establishing and delivering several clinical services, where he has gained valuable experience of seeking efficient solutions for a rapidly expanding service. For example, his time in our Solid Cancer team has seen the number of patient samples being reported quadrupling in three years, along with the introduction of advanced techniques, such Homologous Recombination Deficiency (HRD) testing, which more than doubles the number of patients eligible for PARP inhibitors over gene-level assays.
Gareth’s new role will see him working across all our Genomic Laboratories where he’ll be in the driving seat for scientific innovation and ensuring South East Genomic Medicine Service is known as a leader in genomic testing.
