Tamsin Cargill

1. How did you become interested in translational gastroenterology? 

As a hepatologist in training, I want to be able to diagnose and treat patients with liver diseases in the best possible way. The idea of harnessing the immune system for therapeutic gain to directly benefit patients is what motivates me to study translational hepatology.   

2. What are you currently working on and what importance does your work hold for current patients with gastrointestinal issues? 

I have just started working on the Delphi Study, part of the DeLIVER Programme, which aims to investigate how early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) develops in the liver and discover how we can diagnose it an earlier stage in patients.

I am collecting samples of blood and liver from patients with and without liver cancer and plan to use multi-omics techniques including flow cytometry, single cell RNAs sequencing and spatial RNA sequencing to understand the changes that happen in the immune cells in the blood and background liver that contribute to cancer development.

I hope this will help us understand the pathogenesis of early HCC development and recurrence and might identify new biomarkers or targets for early detection and treatment.  

3. What do you enjoy most about scientific research? 

I enjoy investigating the reasons behind unexpected results – these are often the most interesting findings! 

4. What’s the best part of being an Oxford University TGU member? 

The collaboration between researchers and clinicians is excellent and everyone is always very supportive of each other.