Our People
Professor Paresh Vyas
FounderProfessor Paresh Vyas
Founder
Paresh is Professor of Haematology at the University of Oxford. He studied medicine at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. After completing his medical and haematology training in London, Paresh carried out his PhD with Professor Higgs and Professor Sir Weatherall at the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit, Oxford. Following this, he completed a three-year post-doctoral fellowship with Professor Orkin at Harvard University. He is a research-active Consultant Haematologist with a clinical practice in myeloid disorders (MDS, AML and MPD) and allogeneic stem cell transplant at the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit in Oxford. Paresh’s research focuses on molecular and cellular biology of AML and MDS with specific interest in purification and therapeutic targeting of myeloid preleukaemic and leukaemic stem cells. He studies single cell biology in both normal and leukaemic haemopoiesis. Paresh is part of the UK AML and MDS clinical trial groups. He is also co-Lead of the Oxford BRC Haematology Theme, is on the Board of NHSBT, vice-chair of the MRC Clinical Training Panel and Translational Lead for the UK Therapy Acceleration Program. Paresh is a co-founding principal investigator of OxStem Oncology.
Tom Milne
FounderTom Milne
Founder
Professor Tom Milne received a PhD in 2005 from the University of British Columbia, Canada. Tom went on to do postdoctoral studies at The Rockefeller University (New York) with Dr. C. David Allis where he worked on the epigenetics of MLL leukaemias. He then became a Group Leader in 2010 at the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit (MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, The University of Oxford) and an Associate Professor of Haematology in 2014. Tom’s major area of research interest is in epigenetics and gene regulation in leukaemia. His work focuses on analysing novel epigenetic pathways in leukaemia and understanding how they interact with transcription factor networks to identify potentially novel druggable targets. Tom is a co-founding principal investigator of OxStem Oncology.
Professor Sten Eirik W Jacobsen
FounderProfessor Sten Eirik W Jacobsen
Founder
Professor Sten Eirik W Jacobsen earned his MD and PhD at the University of Bergen, Norway. At Lund University he became the first Professor of Stem Cell Biology in Sweden. Sten Eirik established and led one of the first six Swedish Strategic Centers of Excellence in Life Sciences: the Lund Stem Cell Center. In 2006, he was appointed to an endowed chair at the University of Oxford, The Anne T and Robert M Bass Chair and Professorship in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology as applied to Medicine, and at the Weatherall Institute of Medicine (WIMM) he established a new Laboratory of Haematopoietic Stem Cell Biology. In 2010, he was appointed as a Guest Professor in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet and was part of establishing a new Center for Hematology and Regenerative Medicine. In 2014, he was awarded an international recruitment grant from the Swedish Research Council and accepted a full professorship in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Sten Eirik also sustains a part-time Professorship and research programme at the WIMM. Professor Jacobsen is the recipient of a number of Scandinavian prizes including the Fernström Prize for young investigators (2000), Göran Gustafsson Prize in Medicine (2005), and the Tobias Prize (2014). He is a member of advisory boards of centres of excellence in Sweden and internationally, organising committees of international meetings, prize/award committees, and international research/grant review panels. Sten Eirik’s research has identified extrinsic and intrinsic regulators of hematopoiesis and hematopoietic stem cells, and novel lineage commitment steps and stem cell subsets in normal hematopoiesis as well as the identity and therapy-responsiveness of stem cells required and sufficient for propagating hematological malignancies. Sten Eirik is a co-founding principal investigator of OxStem Oncology.
Petter Woll
FounderPetter Woll
Founder
Dr Petter Woll received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 2008 after working in the lab of Dan Kaufman focused on modelling human blood development from embryonic stem cells. Petter continued to study cancer stem cells in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes during his postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford in Sten Eirik Jacobsen’s lab. In 2015, Petter was appointed Assistant Professor at the Karolinska Institute at the Center for Hematology and Regenerative Medicine. His lab is focused on unravelling cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying malignant hematopoiesis. Petter is a co-founding principal investigator of OxStem Oncology.