Rate My Professor Joanne Edwards

Joanne Edwards is Professor of Translational Cancer Pathology at the University of Glasgow. She received her PhD from the University of St Andrews and moved to Glasgow in 1997. She is Director of Education in the School of Cancer Sciences, Deputy Head of the School of Cancer Sciences, and Director of the Glasgow Tissue Research Facility. With over 20 years of experience in cancer biomarker research and therapeutics, her work centres on colorectal and breast cancer.

Edwards has developed unique patient tissue cohorts with extensive linked clinical data across solid tumours. She has an H-index of 74, more than 200 scientific papers, and over 20,000 citations. Her research examines determinants of patient outcomes, including local and systemic inflammatory responses, the tumour microenvironment, and cell signalling, with the aim of integrating findings into clinical management. The team utilises tissue microarrays to identify prognostic and predictive biomarkers and has expanded into AI computational pathology, genomics, transcriptomics, spatial biology, and human models such as tissue explants and patient-derived organoids. The overarching goal is to develop novel treatment strategies for a personalised medicine approach in colorectal and breast cancer. Edwards leads a multidisciplinary team of scientists and surgeons and has supervised over 30 PhD students. Despite being a non-clinical researcher, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists.