Dr Abigail Bryce-Atkinson
Meet Dr Abigail Bryce-Atkinson, a postdoctoral researcher in The Advanced Radiotherapy Group. Here, she talks about her research journey and her advice for prospective postdocs.
Dr Abigail Bryce-Atkinson
Postdoc title: Using image-based data mining to identify brain regions correlated with radiation damage
Type: Non-clinical
Research group: Advanced Radiotherapy Group
Lead supervisor: Marianne Aznar
My Postdoc
My postdoc position is based within the Advanced Radiotherapy Group and is focused on radiotherapy as a treatment for childhood cancer. I am using novel data mining methods to identify radiation sensitive structures in the brain that are linked with long-term side effects, such as cognitive function in childhood cancer survivors. The hope of this research is to use our findings to inform radiotherapy clinical practice by identifying regions where radiation dose should be avoided to minimise radiation damage for future patients.
My first postdoc was funded by Friends of Rosie, which focused on exploring facial asymmetry in children treated with radiotherapy. My current postdoc is part of the BRAINatomy project funded by Stand up to Cancer (SU2C) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK), which aims to develop an anatomical atlas of neuroradiation damage after childhood radiotherapy. This work is in collaboration with the University Medical Centre Groningen (The Netherlands) and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (Memphis, USA), led by Dr Martin McCabe (The University of Manchester) and Dr Thomas Merchant (St Jude Children’s Research Hospital).
The Team Science setting here in Manchester has been really beneficial to my research, and the interactions between clinical and non-clinical researchers within the team, and the strong link with The Christie is a great asset. We also have great people within the team who are world leading experts in the field and their support has been invaluable.
My day-to-day work is computational based and also includes supervision of some Master’s student projects. I collaborate with St. Jude who have world-leading data collection on the long-term follow up of children treated with radiotherapy. Surprisingly, the pandemic has strengthened this collaboration as we have been able to schedule weekly Zoom meetings to share data and methodologies at ease, but I look forward to visiting them again in the future and developing our collaboration further with new joint projects.
The biggest difference in transitioning from my PhD to my Postdoc has been the freedom in my research, and I am able to further carve my own research path. My advice to people wanting to transition from a PhD to a Postdoc would be to be open with your supervisors about your career goals and what you are interested in researching. They have great networks, so be sure to take full advantage of them!
The Team Science setting here in Manchester has been really beneficial to my research, and the interactions between clinical and non-clinical researchers within the team, and the strong link with The Christie is a great asset.
Dr Abigail Bryce-Atkinson
Postdoc in The Advanced Radiotherapy Group, Division of Cancer Sciences
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
I have found it incredibly rewarding to apply my knowledge to help those treated for cancer, especially children, whose longer life expectancy after treatment means they may suffer long-term side effects to a greater extent.
For Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, it’s important to raise awareness and support for children with cancer as well as promoting the progressive research that hopes to find cures and improve their quality of life during and after treatment. There are many charities that both fund this research and support children and their families going through treatment. To find out more, please visit:
