Rate My Professor Stuart McDonald

Professor Stuart McDonald is the Professor of Gastrointestinal Biology and Group Leader at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, part of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. He earned his BSc (Hons) and PhD under Professor Tom MacDonald at the Institute of Cell and Molecular Science. Post-PhD, he conducted research on inflammatory bowel disease and immunology of infectious gut diseases. This work led him to stem cell biology in the human gastrointestinal tract, collaborating with Professor Sir Nicholas Wright and Professor Malcolm Alison. In November 2008, he rejoined Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, developing an independent research program on premalignant disease progression to cancer.

McDonald's laboratory, the Clonal Dynamics Lab within the Centre for Cancer Evolution, focuses on stem cell niches and clonal expansions in Barrett’s oesophagus, stomach, breast ductal carcinoma in situ, and normal human liver. Notable findings include hepatocytes undergoing punctuated expansion from periportal stem cell niches and crypt fusion as a homeostatic mechanism in the colon. His key publications encompass "Hepatocytes undergo punctuated expansion dynamics from a periportal stem cell niche in normal human liver" (Journal of Hepatology, 2023), "Crypt fusion as a homeostatic mechanism in the human colon" (Gut, 2019), "Analysis of clonal expansions through the normal and premalignant human breast epithelium reveals the presence of luminal stem cells" (Journal of Pathology, 2018), "The stem cell organisation, and the proliferative and gene expression profile of Barrett’s epithelium, replicates pyloric-type gastric glands" (Gut, 2014), and "Barrett's metaplasia glands are clonal, contain multiple stem cells and share a common squamous progenitor" (Gut, 2011). He has obtained Cancer Research UK funding through Foundation Programme awards and the Grand Challenge initiative STORMing Cancer, a £20 million international effort. McDonald is Director of The Haemochromatosis Society, a member of the NCRI Upper GI Clinical Studies Group, the American Gastroenterology Association, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He contributes to the Gut journal scan review team and reviews for Gut, Journal of Pathology, American Journal of Gastroenterology, Stem Cells, and Histopathology, as well as funding bodies. His research has significantly influenced understanding of epithelial clonal dynamics and cancer evolution.