Eithne Costello is a professor of Molecular Oncology in the Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine at the University of Liverpool. Eithne Costello has a B.Sc. and PhD in Pharmacology, from University College Dublin and undertook post-doctoral training at the Swiss Institute for Cancer Research (ISREC), Lausanne and the Institute of Microbiology, University of Lausanne. She leads the Cancer Research UK-funded programme, the UK Early Detection Initiative for Pancreatic Cancer (UK-EDI), aimed at detecting pancreatic cancer in individuals newly diagnosed with diabetes. Her research is supported also by funding from Pancreatic Cancer UK, The UK’s National Institute for Health Research and the European Union. She is on the UK management committee and is a Working Group lead for the European Union TRANSPAN COST ACTION and is on the Board of Directors of Pancreatic Cancer Europe. She is a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

Chris Halloran is Professor of Pancreatic Surgery at the University of Liverpool & honorary consultant in pancreatic surgery at NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group. Chris is the clinical lead for The European Registry of Hereditary Pancreatic Diseases (EUROPAC), which determines risk and provides pancreatic cancer screening for at-risk patients with a family history of pancreatic cancer or hereditary pancreatitis. He runs basic and clinical science research, leading to invention of novel surgical techniques. As a chief investigator he has run many clinical trials namely: PANasta, Dispact, ChroPac and EUROPAC-2 across the UK and Europe. Chris is the clinical lead on UK-EDI with responsibility for the collection of the UK-New-onset Diabetes cohort.

William (Bill) Greenhalf is a Professor of Molecular Oncology in the Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine at the University of Liverpool. He is the lead scientist of the European Registry of Hereditary Pancreatitis and Familial Pancreatic Cancer (EUROPAC), the Director of the Liverpool Good Clinical Practice Laboratory (GCPLab) facility and is the non-clinical lead for the Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicines Centre (ECMC). Bill was awarded his PhD from the University of Manchester in 1990 and has since worked for the State University of São Paulo (UNESP) in Brazil, Ciba-Geigy and then Novartis in Basle Switzerland, before coming to Liverpool in 1997. Bill sits on the steering committees of a number of Phase II and Phase III clinical trials.

Lucy, a Pancreatic Cancer UK Career Establishment Fellow, holds a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of West Virginia, an MSc in Forensic and Analytical Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde and an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Manchester. Her work for the past several years has focused on biomarker development for early detection of pancreatic cancer, especially using proteomics techniques. Lucy is interested in the relationship between pancreatic cancer and diabetes, including the mechanisms underpinning the development of diabetes in individuals with pancreatic cancer.

Lucy led a Cancer Research UK Primer award using aptamer technology to explore the proteome in pancreatic cancer and diabetes and is a co-investigator on UK-EDI, established to detect pancreatic cancer earlier in individuals with new-onset diabetes mellitus. Her other funded projects involve the creation of risk stratification tools for pancreatic cancer using health record data combined with molecular profiling, and the use of multifunctional targeted nanoparticles for MR imaging enhancement of pre-malignant pancreatic lesions.

Robert van der Meer is Professor of Management Science at the University of Strathclyde. Robert has a PhD in Management Science from the University of Strathclyde, an MSc in Economics (with specialisation in Mathematical Economics) from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Cand. Econ. degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Amsterdam.

Over the last decade, Robert's research has focused on health economics and healthcare operations management & improvement, funded by the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland, NHS England, Cancer Research UK, Pancreatic Cancer UK and others. Robert has been engaged since 2016 in a range of research projects on the early diagnosis and effective treatment of pancreatic cancer, working to develop a novel diagnostic tool for detecting pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours at an early disease stage.

Richard Jackson is a senior lecturer in health data science, and the UK-EDI statistician. Richard completed his PhD at Liverpool University investigating the application of Bayesian methodology in clinical trials. He works on the delivery of novel and adaptive designs and the identification of prognostic/predictive biomarkers in cancer clinical trials. This includes statistical methods for causal analysis, efficient clinical trial design and tools for the identification of prognostic/predictive clinical biomarkers.

He was recently awarded a National Institute for Health Research fellowship to investigate the uses and applications of Personalised Synthetic Controls. This includes using statistical models to predict how we would expect patients to perform under a standard of care. Comparing patients' actual performance against these predictions can then give us insights into what treatments may work best for patients.

Rob is the study manager for UK-EDI. He obtained a BSc. In Microbiology and Biotechnology and an MA in Biotechnological Law and Ethics from the University of Sheffield before initially starting a career in pharmaceutical manufacturing and development. Since moving into clinical research Rob has worked for over 18 years in oncology clinical trials at the Liverpool Clinical Trials Centre. He is experienced in pancreatic cancer trials, having previously worked across the ESPAC trials and managed the PET-PANC study. In addition, he has also managed Follicular Lymphoma and Head and Neck cancer trials.

Lisa is a Senior Pharmacology Research Nurse at LUHFT and the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at Liverpool University. Her work includes a diverse range of pharmacology studies from Healthy Volunteer Research to patients who have had serious adverse drug reactions. She has previously worked for 5 years in Clinical Trials in industry, but for the last 13 years worked in Pharmacology. Lisa has also been involved in leading a number of pharmacogenomic studies to improve medicine safety for patients. Lisa has been supporting the UK EDI Study since 2023.

Lisa “The UK EDI study is an exciting study to be involved with, the participants involved are very committed to supporting the study and its potential in diagnosing pancreatic cancer early.”

Irena is a General Surgery Specialty trainee with an interest in Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery. She started her higher specialty training in 2021 and is currently on approved Out-Of-Programme period for Research (OOPR) undertaking a PhD in Pancreatology University of Liverpool. Her work is focused on advancing the translation of biomarker candidates for early detection of pancreatic cancer.

Ben completed a Master of Research in Biomedical Sciences and Translational Medicine at the University of Liverpool in 2019. He then joined the Pancreas Research Group as a research technician, working on an early detection biomarker discovery project for pancreatic cancer under the supervision of Dr. Lucy Oldfield. Following this, he pursued a PhD in Experimental Cancer Therapeutics at the University of Wolverhampton, focusing on repurposing existing drugs for pancreatic cancer therapy. After obtaining his PhD in May 2025, Ben returned to Liverpool as the UK-EDI Postdoctoral Research Associate. In this role, he is conducting research to validate biomarkers capable of detecting type 3c diabetes and those which may distinguish between benign pancreatic disease and malignant pancreatic cancer.

Zaid is a general surgery trainee within the North West deanery, with a developing interest in pancreatic cancer. He earned his medical degree and a master’s degree at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Currently, he is pursuing a PhD focused on cancer medicine and molecular biology.

His research aims to enhance outcomes in pancreatic cancer through earlier detection and a deeper understanding of disease biology, especially the link between pancreatic cancer and new-onset diabetes. By combining surgical experience with molecular science, Zaid seeks to develop better tools for early diagnosis and insights into the disease’s underlying mechanisms.

Martyn is a General Surgery trainee with a subspecialty interest in Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery. He is currently taking time out of programme to undertake a PhD at the University of Liverpool as a Clinical Research Fellow at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. He studied medicine at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne graduating in 2012. He undertook an intercalated Masters in research studying medical and molecular biosciences whilst an undergraduate. He is involved in patient recruitment in work package 1 as well as forming part of the research team for work packages 3 and 5. His PhD is focussing on the clinical and biological characteristics of diabetogenic pancreatic cancer to inform earlier detection strategies.

Hannah is a research nurse at Liverpool University Hospital. She obtained a BSc. degree in Pharmacology in 2012 from the University of Liverpool and subsequently obtained a Masters degree in Biomedical Sciences and Translational Medicine, also from the University of Liverpool. During her master's degree she conducted pancreatic cancer research, focusing on nanoparticle delivery to pancreatic cancer cells. In 2015 she began her nurse training, working in Neonatal Intensive Care at Liverpool Women's Hospital. She is the research nurse on the UK-EDI trial, and is involved in patient recruitment work package 1.

Chandni is a PhD student funded by the University of Liverpool. She completed a Masters in Research in Biomedical Sciences and Translational Medicine at the University of Liverpool in 2019. Prior to that, Chandni worked as a Community Pharmacist after obtaining her undergraduate degree, Master of Pharmacy at King's College London. Chandni is part of the UK-EDI research team working on biomarker validation in work package 3 and biomarker discovery work package 5. Her PhD focusses on biomarker development using proteomic techniques to facilitate earlier detection of pancreatic cancer in individuals with new-onset diabetes mellitus.