Meet Dr Emma Atakpa, Postdoctoral Data Scientist at the Centre for Cancer Prevention within the Wolfson Institute, who talks about her fascinating work developing models to predict risk of breast cancer.
1. Please could you talk to us about your work as a postdoc researcher and what your research area is?
I am a Postdoctoral Data Scientist at the Centre for Cancer Prevention, working on a Breast Cancer Now-funded project developing models to predict risk of breast cancer by oestrogen-receptor subtype and tumour aggressiveness. The work builds upon a state-of-the-art breast cancer risk model (Tyrer-Cuzick) developed by our research team. The aim is to improve models for assessing risk of breast cancer in order to help progression towards risk-stratified breast cancer screening, whereby prevention and screening are personalised to a woman’s risk of developing the disease. The project also aims to evaluate the benefits and harms of risk-stratified screening based on these models. Prior to my postdoc, I completed my PhD in Medical Statistics with the same research group, similarly looking at breast cancer prevention and risk, but with a focus on mammographic density. My work explored how we can use mammograms collected over time to improve breast cancer risk prediction and to signal whether a woman is responding to risk-reducing interventions such as weight loss or preventive endocrine therapy. I have a background in Mathematics and Statistics, so my research is non-clinical. This means that I spend most of my day on a computer, either analysing data, coding, writing analysis plans, drafting manuscripts, or reading up on new research and methodology. I mainly code using R or Stata, but I am currently learning additional programming languages such as C++ and Python. I also provide statistical support for the wider medical school, including teaching statistics for MSc modules, working as an Independent Statistician for the SIZOMUS clinical trial, organising the Wolfson Institute Statisticians’ seminars, coordinating the UK Covid and Gynaecological Cancer Study and analysing Covid-19 ethnicity and equity data for Barts Health NHS Trust. My work has been great for opening up opportunities to collaborate with a wide range of researchers in the UK, USA, and Australia.
2. After completing your PhD in 2019, you worked at the University of Western Australia as a visiting researcher. How long were you there for and what was the experience like? How do Australian universities differ from UK universities?