Dr Chris Hanley BSc, MRes, PhD
Senior Post-Doctoral Research Fellow investigating the Tumour Microenvironment

Dr Chris Hanley is a Senior Post-Doctoral Research Fellow working on investigating the tumour microenvironment at the University of Southampton’s Faculty of Medicine.
The nature of a cancer’s interaction with non-cancerous cells can determine whether the body will fight it off or help it to grow and spread. Understanding the complexity of this ‘social network’ will enable the development of more effective treatment strategies. My research uses state-of-the-art techniques to examine how cells communicate within a tumour and develop methods to therapeutically target these interactions.
Chris Hanley graduated from Imperial College London with a Biochemistry BSc in 2008. This was followed by an MRes (2011) and PhD (2014) in cancer research from the University of Southampton, including a period of study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Following his PhD, Chris has worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Southampton Cancer Sciences Unit and at the Johns Hopkins Centre for Cell Dynamics.
Dr Hanley’s research aims to understand how the tumour microenvironment influences cancer progression. Particularly focussing on the the role of cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in tumour progression. To examine these processes, state-of-the-art methods for analysing human tissue samples are used: including single-cell (sc)RNA-Sequencing; digital pathology analysis of multiplexed immunostaining and 3D organotypic co-cultures that incorporate autologous tumour organoids and stromal cells.
A significant achievement in this work was the identification of NAD(P)H Oxidase 4 (NOX4) as a therapeutic target. Following this discovery, the use of NOX inhibitors to treat cancers has been patented (Hanley. CJ co-inventor - WO2019086579) and clinical trials are in development to test NOX4 inhibitor efficacy in cancer.
Qualifications
- BSc, Imperial College London 2008
- MRes, University of Southampton 2011
- PhD, University of Southampton 2014