Ashok Kar

Royal College of Surgeons Research Award, Stanford University - Thoracic Surgery

Ashok is a trainee cardiothoracic surgeon in London and is passionate about improving outcomes for lung cancer patients. Inspired as a teen by the sequencing of the human genome project, he studied Medicine at the University of Cambridge and completed a Natural Sciences Degree in Genetics with research into cell cycle signalling. Twenty years later and after operating on hundreds of cancer patients, he believes that advancing our understanding of the fundamental biology of cancer can drive innovation in surgery. As a Fulbrighter, he will spend three months at Stanford under the supervision of Thoracic Surgeon, Professor Joseph Shrager. He will pursue inter-disciplinary translational research in collaboration with Dr Maximilian Diehn’s lab who have pioneered a novel liquid biopsy technique to detect circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in lung cancer. Ashok is excited to undertake research trying to determine a scientific basis for how oncological surgery is performed. He grew up in Scotland and enjoys the great outdoors and is looking forward to exploring California and immersing himself in American culture.