Marilena Loizidou is Deputy Director of the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science (SIS) at UCL; and Head of the SIS Department at the Royal Free Campus.  

After her undergraduate training in Biochemistry (McMasters University, Canada), she moved to the University of Southampton where she obtained her PhD in Solid Tumour Biology and Pharmacology and became lead clinical scientist at the University of Southampton/NHS. She moved to UCL to the academic department of Surgery, and became Head of Department in 2013.

ML uses nanotechnology tools in her cancer pharmacology research.  Her main focus has been in the field of novel imaging and targeted therapeutics in solid tumours, mainly colorectal cancer, with a focus on the role of the fibrotic cancer stroma.  ML co-invented tumouroids, 3D in vitro cultures of cancer which mimic the composition and architecture of solid tumours. Tumouroids are being developed as platforms for therapeutics and for stratified, precision medicine.

 ML is Co-Founder and Director of the MSc in Nanotechnology and Regenerative Medicine and the MSc in Surgical and Interventional Sciences.