4 women from different generations standing in a row, smiling

Generations Study logo, along with the 'The UK study of the causes of breast cancer' strap line

The Generations Study

The Generations Study is a longitudinal cohort study established in 2004 involving 110,000 adult women living across the UK. The cohort collects extensive high-quality data to study the continuum of breast cancer, from causes to outcomes. Through this research we are learning how to prevent breast cancer, detect it early and improve quality of life and survival after diagnosis.

More than 110,000 women were recruited from across the UK from 2004 to 2011. The study collects extensive, high-quality data through participant recruitment and follow up questionnaires; blood samples; NHS electronic medical records, biopsy material and medical imaging; and analyses of blood, tissue and urine specimens. For more details or for Data Access Requests, please visit the Generations Study Website.

Professors Amy Berrington and Montserrat Garcia-Closas are the Principal Investigators of the Generations Study. The study team includes epidemiologists, biostatisticians, data scientists, laboratory scientists, data engineers, data managers, and scientific administrators.

The study is supported by a partnership between The Institute of Cancer Research and Breast Cancer Now.


Visit the Generations Study website

Researchers

Professor Amy Berrington

Group Leader:

Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Headshot of Amy Berrington

Professor Amy Berrington is an expert in the use of real world data to study the late-effects of cancer treatments, medical radiation exposures and other medications and is leading major studies in this field in breast and childhood cancer survivors. She is a member of multiple national and international advisory boards and is currently Vice-Chair of the US National Academy of Science Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board.

Professor Montse Garcia-Closas

Group Leader:

Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Montse Garcia-Closas headshot

Professor Montserrat Garcia-Closas is physician epidemiologist expert in genetic susceptibility, etiologic heterogeneity, and risk prediction for breast cancer. She co-leads the Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Unit at ICR and Imperial College, and is a member and leader of several large international consortia in cancer epidemiology.

Dr Michael Jones

Senior Staff Scientist:

Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Michael Jones headshot

Dr Michael Jones is a senior staff scientist in the Division of Genetics and Epidemiology, where he is working on the Breast Cancer Now Generations Study. His main research interests are in the design and analysis of complex large epidemiological studies.

Dr Daniel Adams

Epidemiology Research Fellow:

Integrative Cancer Epidemiology headshot Dan adams

Dr Daniel Adams joined The Generations Study research team in 2023 with Professor Garcia-Closas. A medical doctor by training, Daniel practiced as a General Practitioner in the South of England after obtaining his medical degree from Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary. His interest in data science led to a degree in Health Data Analytics and Machine Learning from Imperial College London. At the ICR, Daniel combines his clinical experience and data science training to analyse digital images of breast tissue using AI. He also conducts statistical analyses for breast cancer survival and risk factors.

Dr Nathalie Kliemann

Staff Scientist:

Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Nathalie Kliemann headshot

Nathalie joined the Generations Study research team in April 2025. She is an enthusiastic Staff Scientist with a primary interest in lifestyle research to enhance the understanding of the causes of lifestyle-related cancers and to identify pathways to cancer prevention. She is also interested in the design, management and analysis of large cancer-related epidemiological studies.

Epidemiology Research Associates

Reuben Frost

Epidemiology Research Associate:

Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Headshot of Reuben Frost

Reuben joined The Generations Study research team in 2023 with Professor Garcia-Closas. Previously, he graduated from University of Oxford with a Masters in Mathematics and Statistics, completing his dissertation utilizing Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods to phase imputed genetic samples. Reuben's research focusses on evaluating the performance of models assessing breast cancer risk, and collaborating with other groups to improve these models. He also works on descriptive epidemiology studies, working to find patterns in cancer rates and risk factors in the UK population with the view of projecting these trends into the future.

Zoey Richards

Epidemiology Research Associate:

Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Headshot of Zoey Richards

Zoey joined The Generations Study research team in 2024 with Professor Garcia-Closas. She moved into the role after graduating from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with a MSc in Epidemiology where she wrote her dissertation on how physical proximity to health facilities impacted implant contraceptive use in Senegal. Zoey is working on increasing study access and awareness of the Generations Study. On the research side, she uses geospatial analyses to identify social and environmental risk factors for breast cancer to identify and help address health inequities through public health policy and interventions.

Esmé O'Brien

Epidemiology Research Associate:

Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Headshot of Esme Obrien

Esmé joined The Generations Study research team in 2024 with Professor Amy Berrington. She came from HEOR, where she worked as a Data Scientist conducting statistical analyses to evaluate the effectiveness, safety and public health impact of new health technologies across a range of disease areas. She completed an MSc in Public Health at the University of Bristol, specialising in the mixed-methods evaluation of trauma-informed approaches to health systems. Esmé’s research focuses on exploring the relationship between pre- and post-diagnosis lifestyle factors and ovarian cancer survival.

PhD Students

Imogen Sawyer

PhD Student:

Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Headshot of Imogen Sawyer

Imogen joined the Generations Study research team in 2023, shortly after completing her master’s degree in Population Health Sciences from the University of Cambridge. With her background in epidemiology and data analysis, she is now working towards a PhD with Professor Berrington that investigates the late effects of breast cancer treatments. Imogen is dedicated to advancing our understanding of cancer survivorship and improving patient outcomes.

Isobel Jackson

PhD Student:

Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Headshot of Isobel Jackson

Isobel is a PhD student within the Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research Unit (CEPRU), a joint initiative between Imperial College London and the Institute of Cancer Research. Her research is primarily based within the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Imperial College, supervised by Professor Marc Gunter, Professor Amy Berrington and Dr. Alicia Heath. Isobel’s PhD is focused on temporal changes in modifiable breast cancer risk factors and their association with breast cancer risk in the Generations Study. She previously gained her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Leeds in 2021, with a year-long internship as the Data and Information Intern at Yorkshire Cancer Research. She then received her Master of Public Health (MPH) from Imperial in 2022.

Martina Brayley

PhD Student:

Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Headshot of Martina Brayley

Martina joined The Generations Study research team in 2023 with Professor Berrington. She came from the Department of Health and Social Care, where she worked as a Senior Public Health Intelligence Analyst monitoring the health of the population in England. She has also worked as a Nutrition Scientist in Public Health England, evaluating evidence that supported policy development and public health interventions. She has a background in Nutrition Science and completed an MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2020, specialising in lifestyle and environmental risk factors and chronic diseases.

Shuang Wang

PhD student:

Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Headshot of Shuang Wang

Shuang joined Professor Berrington’s research team in November 2025 as a PhD student. She completed a Master of Public Health (MPH) at Imperial College London in September 2025, specialising in environmental and cancer epidemiology. Her research examines how environmental exposures and cancer treatments influence cancer risk and survivorship. She is currently using population-based data to investigate the late effects of paediatric cancer treatment and to help inform guidelines for surveillance and screening strategies for survivors.

Data engineers and managers

Soumak Manna

Research Data & Systems Engineer:

Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Soumak Manna headshot

Soumak joined the Generations Study team in 2025 under the mentorship of Professor Garcia-Closas. He holds a bachelor’s degree in information technology and a postgraduate diploma in Business Analytics. Prior to joining the team, Soumak gained extensive data-focused experience at leading IT consulting and technology firms, where he developed expertise in SQL, Python, Google Cloud platform, Hadoop, Spark, and ETL best practices. At the Generations Study, Soumak is responsible for data management, governance, and transformation, with a focus on optimizing participant-facing interfaces in line with FAIR principles.

Tal Cohen

Data Engineer/Wrangler in Epidemiology:

Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Headshot of Tal Cohen

Tal joined the Generations Study research team in 2025 with Professor Garcia-Closas. After professional experience in large-scale automated data pipeline creation and management, he received his MSc in Epidemiology from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine after completing his thesis on the long-term drivers of interepidemic periods of dengue virus. His work at the ICR centres around creating and managing efficient data pipelines and responsible delivery of data to analysts in alignment with FAIR principles.

Sanjay Hegde

Data Engineer:

Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Headshot of Sanjay Hegde

Sanjay joined The Generations Study research team in 2024 working with Professor Garcia-Closas. He holds an MSc in Data Science from the University of Birmingham and has expertise in Python, Spark, SQL, and MS Azure, along with knowledge in Machine Learning and Large Language Models. Currently, Sanjay is engaged in Data Management and Transformation of Generations Study data systems to improve the use of data following FAIR principles.

Ana Ferreira

Higher Scientific Officer:

Integrative Cancer Epidemiology headshot Ana Ferreira

Ana joined The Generations Study research team in 2024 with Professor Garcia-Closas. A biomedical scientist by training, Ana holds a MSc in Experimental Pathology and has worked at the ICR for nearly ten years. She transferred from the Cancer Biomarkers Team where she investigated biomarkers of metastatic prostate cancer for the development of novel cancer therapies. Ana is responsible for the management of biological specimens and digital pathology processes within the study by establishing workflows and quality control metrics for scanning, storing and analysing the tissue slides. These will be used to understand how risk factors are related to different types of breast cancer, and to identify tissue biomarkers of transformation from benign breast disease to breast cancer.

Jacqueline Wybrow-Smith

Senior Research Operations:

Clinical Cancer Epidemiology Headshot of Jacqueline Wybrow Smith

Jacqueline joined The Generations Study research team in 2022. Prior to joining the study, she has 14 years of experience working in the NHS in acute hospital, education, and primary care settings, both clinically and operationally, and 19 years in technology-based industries, including as a business analyst. At the Generations Study, Jacqueline manages the scientific research operations, helping the Principal Investigators to prioritize scientific tasks, manage budgets, oversee procurement, contracts, grant submissions, and reporting requirements. She is also responsible for the mammography collections project.

Jane Lebihan

Senior Research Administrator:

Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Headshot of Jane Lebihan

Jane joined The Generations Study research team in 2010 working as a PA/Research Administrator and is currently working as a Senior Research Administrator. Jane is responsible for the pathology collection of samples and pathology reports. These are requested from hospitals all around the country. Samples and pathology reports have been collected for breast and ovarian cancers. These samples are then processed in our laboratory in order to investigate risk and prognostic factors for these cancers and the data from the pathology reports are used by the study scientists.

Dawn Thomas

Senior Team Administrator / Study Coordinating Manager:

Clinical Cancer Epidemiology headshot Dawn Thomas

Dawn joined The Generations Study research team in 2004 with previous expertise in office management, recruitment, and communications. She joined to assist managing the study launch and overseeing the recruitment and enrolment of over 100,000 women in the Generations Study. Since then, Dawn has headed the retention of study participants, contributed to managing other research projects within the team, and has assisted with staff training. Currently, Dawn provides administrative support to the senior study scientists and the research team as well as co-ordinating the Study communications and overseeing participant engagement.

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