Meet Professor James Flanagan
What course do you teach on and what is your role?
I am the MRes Cancer Biology - Course Director.
How has your career led you to teaching?
I am a team leader at Imperial College, running a research lab which focusses on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying drug resistance and metastasis in cancer. My academic background in pharmacy and pharmacology, together with my close links to clinical investigators, helps me approach these questions from a translational perspective with the aim to identify novel therapeutic strategies for cancer. When I joined College as a team leader, there was no course dedicated to the study of the molecular mechanisms of cancer and associated translational research. This led me to create the current MRes in Cancer Biology which provides training in multiple aspects of cancer research (including cancer informatics, bioengineering, molecular biology and omics ) and exposes our students to the groundbreaking work performed at Imperial College and our partner institutions (ie ICR, Crick Institute). As our students spend most of their time on the course attached to research labs, our research and teaching are perfectly integrated, providing students with experience directly relevant to a future career in multiple aspects of cancer research.
What aspect of the course do you enjoy teaching the most?
I enjoy witnessing students progress in their ability to analyse data and formulate associate scientific hypothesis during the course, becoming more and more independent in their thinking and experimental abilities. This transformation require us, teachers on the course, to provide training in various skills, and seeing these skills interlink to result in students' development is a great source of joy.
What do you hope your students will go on to achieve on completion of this course?
I hope that the varied skills portfolio that our students acquire on the course will be their life-long partner, providing them with a competitive edge regardless of the career they engage on. The majority of our students successfully secure PhD studentships after they leave the course, but others directly join biotech/pharma industry, scientific publication or finance careers. The sheer variety of career paths taken by our students in the last 15 years of the course existence is great source of pride.
What is your favorite part about teaching at Imperial College London?
One of the great strength of Imperial College is its multidisciplinarity. It is always stimulating to be able to teach students from various scientific backgrounds and collaborate with teachers in other disciplines to design our curriculum. This helps me keep updated as a teacher and constantly challenges me to better understand my field.