Professor Tim Underwood PhD FRCS

Tim Underwood is Professor of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, UK. He is an internationally recognised expert Upper GI surgeon with over 12 years’ experience as a consultant in the NHS.

He trained in London and the Wessex region before completing a PhD in Molecular Biology and taking up an NIHR Clinical Lectureship in Surgery in 2008. In 2011 he was awarded a UK Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist Fellowship and in the same year he won the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland Prize and Gold Medal for outstanding performance in the Intercollegiate Specialty Examinations (General Surgery). He became a Cancer Research UK & Royal College of Surgeons of England Advanced Clinician Scientist Fellow in April 2017. Tim has been further recognised with the Sir Standford Cade Medal in 2018 and the Moynihan Lectureship and Medal in 2021.

Professor Underwood co-leads the Innovation for Translation Research Group, studying the role of the tumour microenvironment in cancer development and progression with a particular interest in oesophageal cancer and tumour ecology. His team focus on understanding the clinical and molecular determinants of response to therapy and the development of new treatments that target the tumour microenvironment, including immunotherapy.

Professor Underwood was Honorary Secretary of the Surgical Research Society (2023-2026). He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Oesophageal Cancer Clinical and Molecular Stratification (OCCAMS) consortium, a UK-wide collaboration that has defined the genetic landscape of oesophageal adenocarcinoma, including a new molecular classification. He is a founder of the National Oesophagogastric MDT, part of the UK & Ireland Oesophagogastric Cancer Group.

Professor Underwood works nationally on behalf the Association of Upper GI Surgery GB&I (AUGIS) at Executive level as Director of Research. He has led a programme of work to apply machine learning architecture to the National OesophagoGastric Cancer Audit, leading to multiple high-impact publications. He is a UK AI Champion in Healthcare for Responsible AI-UK.

Professor Underwood has developed a portfolio of activities to raise public awareness of the symptoms of oesophageal cancer with the goal of early diagnosis, including numerous radio and TV appearances, most recently featuring in the BBC documentary “Surgeons: At the Edge of Life”. He is a past Chairman of the Oesophageal Cancer Westminster Campaign and was a trustee of Heartburn Cancer UK for 12 years, now Honorary Life Governor.

Dr Elina Elimova, Associate Professor of Medicine

Dr. Elena Elimova is an Associate Professor within the Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Elimova is also board certified in internal medicine and
medical oncology.

After completing her undergraduate studies and Masters of Science in Biochemistry at Queen’s University, she earned her medical degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Ottawa – School of Medicine and a clinical fellowship in medical oncology at the University of Toronto, Canada and subsequently a GI Medical Oncology Fellowship at the MD Anderson Cancer Center where she also worked as a staff physician.

The focus of Dr. Elimova’s research is to improve the outcomes of patients with gastroesophageal malignancies. She has concentrated on database research, translational research and the development of clinical trials.

Nationally she is the co-chair of the Esophagogastric disease oriented group with the CCTG. Internationally she is a member of the National Cancer Institute Esophagogastric steering task force.

Professor Alex Boussioutas, MBBS PhD FRACP AGAF FGESA GAICD

Professor Director of Gastroenterology and
Director of Clinical Genetics and Genomics
The Alfred, Monash University
Program Director of Alfred Specialty Medicine
The Alfred, Alfred Health
alexb@alfred.org.au

Alex Boussioutas is a tenured academic clinician and Professor of Gastroenterology at the School of Translational Medicine, Monash University. He is the Professor and Director of Gastroenterology and the inaugural Director of Clinical Genetics and Genomics at The Alfred. He was appointed as Program Director for Specialty Medicine at Alfred Health. He was the Inaugural Head of GI Risk Management at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre from 2006-2026 and has created a GI Risk Management Service at Alfred Health. He is the immediate past President of the Gastroenterology Society of Australia and has been the longest serving Associate Dean for Graduate Research at the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences of University of Melbourne up till 2021 when he moved to Monash University.

He leads a research program in Gastrointestinal Cancer at Monash University and The Alfred. His research encompasses a number of disciplines including: population health and screening; use of novel technologies to aid early detection of cancer and; genomics in the investigation of molecular pathology of gastric cancer. He was the only Australian collaborator of The Cancer Genome Atlas Network in Upper GI Cancer which led to landmark studies in the characterisation of gastric and oesophageal cancer that were published in Nature. He has a particular interest in cancer genetics and is one of Australia’s leading experts in inherited cancer of the Upper and Lower GI tract.