OUR TEAM
ALI KHURRAM
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Professor Ali Khurram is the Lead (and founder) of the NEOPATH research group. He is the Dean of the School and Professor of Pathology at the School of Clinical Dentistry, University of Sheffield, UK actively involved in undergraduate, postgraduate and clinical teaching and training. In his clinical role he works as a Consultant Pathologist with the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & is the Clinical Lead for the Diagnostic Service. He is a Trustee for The Swallows Head and Neck Cancer Charity and is working with investigators across the world on numerous clinically relevant research challenges to aid patient care. He is particularly interested in application of Digital Pathology and Artificial Intelligence for patient diagnosis and stratification, early detection of head and neck cancer and pre-cancers, salivary gland pathobiology and the role of tumour microenvironment in cancer progression.
HANYA MAHMOOD
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Hanya graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2012. Following her Dental Foundation Training and multiple Dental Core Training posts in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery/Medicine/ Pathology and Radiology she was appointed as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow/Specialist Registrar in Oral Surgery at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals in 2018. As part of her ACF training, she undertook a Masters in Research and was awarded a grant from Sheffield Hospitals Charity to support her preliminary work. She was awarded a prestigious NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship to support a three-year PhD study in improving oral pre-cancer diagnosis using Artificial Intelligence which she finished in early 2024 following which she has been appointed as a Senior Clinical Lecturer & Honorary Consultant in Oral Surgery at Sheffield. She has presented her work at numerous publications and presentations and won numerous accolades for the quality of her work.
PAUL HANKINSON
Paul is a Specialist Registrat in Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology with a strong interest in research especially in the area of head and neck potentially malignant lesions. Paul undertook an intercalated BMedSci degree during his undergraduate degree, learning and using a range of cell culture, molecular biology and histology techniques. He presented his research at the British Society of Oral and Dental Research (BSODR) meeting in 2015 winning the Junior Colgate prize. As a foundation trainee, Paul obtained experience in motivational techniques to improve patient oral hygiene, patient recruitment, gaining consent and collecting data. Paul has worked as an Academic Clinical Fellow and recently moved to NHS training. In his current role, Paul is involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching . He is interested in molecular profiling and better understanding of pre-cancerous head and neck lesions to facilitate early detection and predict malignant transformation.
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CHRISTOPHER PLATAIS
Chris graduated from the University of Sheffield with a BMedSci (2015) and BDS (2018), and currently works as a Speciality Registrar in Oral Medicine. In 2016, Chris was awarded the Junior Colgate Prize for his early work exploring the role of Hox genes in oral cancer and pre-cancer. Chris continued to engage with research and teaching alongside his postgraduate clinical training at Guy’s Hospital in London, where he completed an NIHR-funded Academic Clinical Fellowship (2020-23), PGCert in Applied Research Methods (2023), PGCert in Medical Education (2021) and became Fellow of HEA (2021). During this time, Chris became interested in clinical artificial intelligence and was awarded first prize at his Directorate's annual quality improvement meeting for his work developing a tool to automatically detect dental radiographs that show cysts or tumours. More recently, Chris was awarded the joint RCS England and BISOM pump-priming research grant to explore the role of computational pathology in the diagnosis and prognosis of pre-cancerous oral verrucous lesions. Chris is actively involved in national societies, including as Treasurer for the Oral Medicine & Pathology Group of BSODR and as previous Member’s Representative for BISOM.
MOLLIE CLARK
Mollie graduated from the University of Bristol in 2020 before completing foundation dental training and Dental Core Training (DCT) in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology. During this time, she published research and presented projects at both national and international conferences, earning the BSOMP DCT Prize in 2023. She further honed her clinical and academic skills during a Clinical Fellow role in Sheffield, where she also teaches undergraduate dental and master’s students. Mollie’s research interests include the early detection and prognosis of pre-malignant and malignant lesions, with a particular interest in laryngeal lesions—an underrepresented area in head and neck research with significant potential to improve patient outcomes.
In 2024, Mollie was appointed as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology in Sheffield. She is currently developing research collaborations and applying for grants to advance her ideas and drive innovation in the field.
ZHIYANG CHEN
Zhiyang started his PhD in October 2024 under the supervision of Prof. Ali Khurram. In 2023, he received his MSc in Computer Science from the University of St. Andrews. His main research areas are deep learning, computer vision, and computational pathology. After graduating from the University of St. Andrews, Zhiyang worked as a research assistant at the Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital in China, where he collaborated on a number of projects on AI-based prognostic marker discovery for hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Currently Zhiyang is working with Prof.Ali Khurram and Dr. Bilal Tahir on AI-based digital marker discovery and computational multimodal analysis for various cancers.
SYED AHMED TAQI
Taqi started his Ph.D. in October 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Ali Khurram. He completed his Master’s program in Oral Pathology at Government Dental College and Hospital (Mumbai, India) in 2008. Between 2008 and 2013, he worked as an academician and clinician at Government Dental College & Hospital and Bharati Vidyapeeth Dental College and Hospital in India. This was followed by a role in the same position at King Khaled University Faculty of Dentistry and Najran University Faculty of Dentistry (Saudi Arabia) till 2021. He has published numerous scientific articles including original studies, case reports, and reviews and has presented scientific papers and posters at various conferences. He is also a member of the Indian Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathologists. His doctoral research includes digital markers of diagnosis and prognosis to predict head and neck cancer behavior.
CLAUDIA KIRSCH
Claudia is a Clinical Professor of Radiology at Yale University. She specialises in neuroradiology and H&N imaging with a focus on developing innovative methodologies to enhance patient care. Her PhD explores Viral mediated disease utilising high resolution MRI imaging. Claudia is the recipient of the American Society of Neuroimaging Oldendorf award, and additional awards for new MRI techniques in assessing spinal cord trauma, numerous teaching awards, and international accolades for development of award-winning interactive 3-D H&N anatomy software. She has served and continues to serve on numerous committees including the Current Chair of the American Society of H&N Radiology Research Committee, Educational, Program & Research Committees of the American Society of H&N Imaging, Radiological Society of North America, North American Skull Base Society, American Society of Functional Imaging, American Association of Woman Radiologists, Association of University Radiologists, and is Past President of the Eastern Neuroradiological Society. Her Prior grants and research have led to national and international presentations, including a TEDx talk on imaging how cancer “hitchhikes” via perineural invasion through the skull base.
JOHN CHARLTON
