Prof Vincent Gnanapragasam.
Vincent J Gnanapragasam is the first to hold a personal Chair in Urology at the University of Cambridge. Vincent’s academic work has covered the full spectrum of basic science, translational, clinical and epidemiological disciplines in prostate cancer. His research has successfully integrated research into routine clinical practice. He has developed novel prognostic prediction models for both group stratified cohorts Cambridge Prognostic Groups and for individualised prediction Predict Prostate for personalised management of prostate cancer.
In 2021 the Cambridge Prognostic Groups was adopted by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence as the nationally recommended risk stratification tool (NG131). Predict Prostate is also the only decision aid endorsed by the UK NICE National Guidelines on prostate cancer for decision making and has been translated into 6 languages. Both are now also included in the European Association of Urology prostate cancer guidelines. He has pioneered risk stratified management for active surveillance (STRATCANS) and setup one of the first dedicated early prostate cancer clinics in the UK. He has developed, led and completed numerous investigator led multicentre trials including; Predict Prostate RCT, PRIM biomarker study, TARGET and the TAPS01&TAPS02 IMP trials as well as the NIHRi4i funded CamPROBE (based on his invention of a low-cost transperineal biopsy device). The CamPROBE has now been licensed for dissemination across the NHS and internationally.
He is Chief Investigator of the DIAMOND study which hold over 2000 bio-samples, tissue and annotated clinical data for biomarker discovery in urological diseases (to date used in >70 research studies). He founded the Cambridge Urology Translational Research and Clinical Trials office which has recruited>2000 patients to various NIHR and portfolio urology trials.
He has established links with STEM scientists to develop innovations including biosensors, machine learning algorithms and statistical modelling methods. He holds patents & CE marks and has won numerous prizes for research, including the CE Alken prize, a Hunterian Professorship and the University of Cambridge, Vice-Chancellors Award for Research Impact.