Dr Rebecca Jones

Head of Cancer, Ageing and Digipath at Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)

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Head of Cancer, Ageing and Digipath, Office for Life Sciences (DSIT/DHSC)
Policy Fellow, Centre for Science and Policy

Rebecca leads the Cancer, Ageing and Digipath team in the Office for Life Sciences taking a missions approach to tackling two of the greatest healthcare challenges facing society – Cancer and Ageing – working in partnership with stakeholders across HMG, NHS, academia, patient groups, industry and the third sector. Using developments in research and innovation, the missions will work to improve cancer diagnosis, treatment and care, and towards preventing people developing multiple long-term conditions as they age. Her team also leads an ongoing programme to digitise and use AI in pathology and imaging in the NHS.

As a policymaker, she has focussed on working at the research and policy interface taking an evidence-based and futures approach to tackling complex societal issues. In previous roles, she led strategy on international research and innovation collaboration, a G7 track on research collaboration during the UK presidency and led a number of projects in the Government Office for Science including the Future of an Ageing Population Foresight project.

Her work as a policy maker is influenced by her background as a molecular biologist when she gained a PhD investigating the INK4a/ARF locus involved in tumour suppression and cellular senescence, and in a government agency developing and validating diagnostic tests for animal diseases.