Heer group

What we do

Clinical trials of surgical technologies and translational studies of premalignant and malignant transformation.

Background

• Cross cutting research spanning the spectrum of major clinical trials, translational studies and basic science. 
• A focus on urological cancers and stem cell biology.
• Consultant Surgeon (2011-). Robotic surgery and complex pelvic cancer.
• NIHR HTA Programme Deputy Chair (2022-). 
• NICE Guidelines Chairman (2021-). 
• Chairman of the NCRI localised prostate cancer subgroup (2017-2022)
• NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) Executive for North East & North Cumbria (NENC) (2020-2022)
• National Clinical Excellence award (2021).
• Newcastle University Director of MD studies and PG Associate Dean (2016-2022)
• Cystectomy Program Director for the International Newcastle Robotic Surgery Course (2016-2019)
• Urology lead ACF/ACL program (2015-2022)

Research

Clinical trials in kidney, bladder and prostate cancer:

• Chief Investigator, NIHR FOLLOW UP; £1.9M; 2024-2028. A natural experiment comparing the clinical and cost-effectiveness of follow-up strategies after radical treatment for prostate cancer
• Chief Investigator, NIHR PARTIAL; £1.9M; 2022-2027. Randomised trial of the clinical and cost effectiveness of PARTIAL vs radical nephrectomy for clinically localised renal cell carcinoma
• Co-Investigator, CRUK Early Detection and Diagnosis Research PACIFIC; £1.7M; 2022-2026. Evaluating the role of fast MRI and image-fusion for detection of prostate cancer (Lead PI Ahmed)
• Chief Investigator, NIHR PHOTO; £2.4M; 2014-2021. A randomised trial comparing photodynamic guided resection with standard white light surgery
• Chief Investigator, NIHR VARIANT; £0.3M; 2018-2021. A trial of biomarker-driven treatment in prostate cancer
• Principle investigator, NIHR BRC; £0.2M; 2018-2021. Developing biomarkers using mitochondrial DNA mutation lineage tracing for early detection of bladder cancer
• Principle investigator, Innovate UK CICERO; £0.3M; 2017-2018. AI-embedded image-enhanced video cystoscopy for a bladder cancer detection

The characterisation of human prostate stem cells: 

• Principle investigator, Prostate Cancer Foundation award; $1M; 2019-2021. Patient stem cell derived prostate organoids for preclinical testing and treatment stratification.
• Principle investigator, Prostate Cancer Research grant; £0.5M; 2022-2025. Mapping the epigenetic evolution of prostate carcinogenesis (Epi-Evo study).
• Co-investigator, Prostate Cancer Research grant; £0.5M; 2020-2024. Filling a critical knowledge gap in androgen receptor variant splicing to enable development of new prostate cancer therapies.
• CRUK Clinician Scientist Fellowship; £0.8M; 2011-2016.In situ characterisation of prostate stem cell fate.
• Royal College of Surgeon’s Hunterian Professorship and Medal 2010.
• MRC Clinician PhD Fellow; £0.1M; 2003-2006. The role of KGF in prostatic stem cell differentiation.