Gary has extensive experience of developing novel clinical trials, particularly in lung and colorectal cancer, translating Birmingham-led discovery science into patient outcomes. Recent Immunotherapy studies for which he is Chief Investigator (CI) include ANICCA-Class II and PePS2, both Birmingham-led and delivered by the University’s CRCTU. PePS2’s outcomes were published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine (DOI: 10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30033-3) and could open up a new therapy to Performance Status 2 Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer patients.

Gary’s translational research focuses at present on the dynamics and importance of MHC class II expression in colorectal cancer and defining predictive biomarkers for toxicity from checkpoint blockade. Working in collaboration with Birmingham colleagues Dr Francis Mussai and Dr Carmela de Santo on research into Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cells (MDSCs), he has recently published data on the crosstalk between cancer cells, monocytes and T cells in CRC, describing how CRC polarises monocytes to become M-MDSCs (Cancer Immunology Immunotherapy; DOI: 10.1007/s00262-021-03081-5). Following on from other data from this group identifying CD33 as a novel target for ADC-mediated M-MDSC killing, they have have initiated the phase 0 trial GOTHAM using gemtuzumab ozogamicin with reduction in M-MDSC level as a primary end-point.