Lewis Quayle BSc (Hons.), MRes, PhD, FHEA
Senior Lecturer | Bioinformatician | Cancer Biologist
Overview
Dr. Lewis Quayle is a cancer biologist, bioinformatician and data scientist with a background that combines experimental and computational oncology. He currently works as Senior Lecturer in Data-Driven Cell Biology at Sheffield Hallam University and holds an honorary position as a Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics at the University of Sheffield.
Lewis trained in experimental oncology, receiving his PhD on the identification and characterisation of mitotically quiescent sub-clones in breast cancer from the University of Sheffield in 2018. He subsequently transitioned into computational oncology, combining wet-lab expertise with large-scale omics analyses.
His research sits at the interface of cancer biology, bioinformatics, and data science, using multi-omic profiling, computational modelling, and high-performance analytics to study metastasis, tumour dormancy, and therapeutic resistance. His independent programme focuses on preventing metastatic relapse and improving stratified treatment approaches in high-incidence malignancies.
Lewis develops scalable bioinformatics pipelines and reproducible analytical frameworks for multi-omic cancer research, integrating statistical modelling and machine learning to identify biomarkers and clinically actionable insights. His work contributes to national precision medicine initiatives, including Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes Project and the GUSTO phase II clinical trial, where he contributes to mutational landscape profiling and molecular subtyping efforts in bladder and ovarian cancers.
Alongside research, Lewis supervises doctoral and postgraduate researchers and is committed to open and reproducible science. He serves on the Editorial Board of Clinical & Experimental Metastasis, is a steering committee member of the Northern Bioinformatics User Group, and contributes to international reproducible research initiatives including nf-core. He is a Fellow of Advance HE and a certified The Carpentries instructor.
Research
Lewis’s research focuses on translational cancer bioinformatics, integrating multi-omic profiling, computational modelling, machine learning, and high-performance analytics to address metastasis, tumour dormancy, therapeutic resistance, and challenges in precision oncology. More broadly, his work spans next-generation sequencing and mass spectrometry, high-throughput screening analytics, public healthcare data science, and reproducible bioinformatics pipeline development, with a consistent emphasis on converting complex biological data into clinically actionable insight.
He contributes to national precision medicine initiatives through Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes Project, where he is a member of the Clinical Interpretation Partnerships in bladder and ovarian cancer, contributing to mutational profiling and molecular subtyping analyses. He is also part of the bioinformatics team for the GUSTO phase II clinical trial, supporting genomic stratification and treatment-response modelling in muscle-invasive bladder cancer.
His independent research programme centres on identifying molecular drivers of metastatic dormancy and therapy resistance, with the aim of preventing relapse and improving stratified treatment approaches in high-incidence malignancies.
Notable current collaborative projects include predictive modelling of EV-derived microRNA-driven microbiotal dysbiosis in colorectal cancer, biomarker discovery and validation through advanced survival analysis framework development, and translational applications of multi-omic data integration. He also supports various smaller projects in data analytics, public healthcare data, text mining and sentiment analysis, and predictive modelling.
Teaching & Supervision
Lewis has extensive experience teaching and supervising across biomedical and computational disciplines. He began supervising research projects during his MRes and has since supported undergraduate, BMedSci, MSc, and doctoral students across oncology, bioinformatics, and data science.
He previously lectured on next-generation sequencing, bioinformatic analytics, and reproducible computational research within the MSc Translational Oncology and MSc Molecular Medicine programmes at the University of Sheffield. At Sheffield Hallam University, he lectures within the Digital Analytics and Technologies subject group and currently develops and leads the MSc Data Analytics Tools and Techniques module. He previously led the MSc modules Learning Systems and Data Analysis for Healthcare and Ethics of Healthcare Information, and contributes to the Advanced Data Management Project module on the MSc Big Data Analytics programme.
He has been awarded Fellowship of Advance HE (FHEA) in recognition of his alignment with the Professional Standards Framework (2023) and is a certified The Carpentries instructor, delivering training in reproducible coding, data science, and research software practices.
Postgradute Supervision
Ronak Naeemaee
PhD (Director of Studies, Sheffield Hallam University; fully funded GTA PhD Studentship)
Unlocking Precision Medicine: Advanced Survival Analysis Tools for Cancer Biomarker Validation
Commenced: October 2024
Lucy Burton
PhD (Co-supervisor, Sheffield Hallam University; funded by BBSRC Yorkshire Bioscience Doctoral Training Partnership)
Non-Invasive Detection of Breast Cancer from Fingertip Smears
Commenced: October 2025
Tamara Clover
PhD (Co-supervisor, University of Sheffield; funded by Breast Cancer Now)
Preventing outgrowth of dormant breast cancer cells in bone - a new gene therapy-based approach
Commenced: October 2025
Postdoctoral Staff Management
Dr Toni Beevers
Postdoctoral Researcher (Co-manager, Sheffield Hallam University; funded by Paxman Scalp Cooling)
Biological research into mechanisms of cooling-mediated protection against chemotherapy-induced hair loss and peripheral neuropathy
Commenced: January 2025
Dr Maria Price
Postdoctoral Researcher (Co-manager, University of Sheffield; funded by Breast Cancer Now)
Preventing outgrowth of dormant breast cancer cells in bone - a new gene therapy-based approach
Commenced: August 2025
Dr Rhianna Blyth
Postdoctoral Researcher (Co-manager, Sheffield Hallam University; funded by The Human Research Trust)
Repurposing Surgical Waste Tissue to Develop Humanised Models for Cancer Immunotherapy Testing
Commenced: July 2026
Engagement & Impact
Leadership and Professional Service
Editorial Board Member - Clinical & Experimental Metastasis (2023 - present)
Steering Committee Member - Northern Bioinformatics User Group (elected 2024 - present)
Instructor - The Carpentries (Data, Software and Library Carpentry) (2023 - present)
Fellow - Advance HE (2023 - present)
Full Member - British Association for Cancer Research (2014 - present)
Full Member - European Association for Cancer Research (2014 - present)
Peer Review
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B
BMC Cancer
Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology
Clinical & Experimental Metastasis
Discover Oncology
Journal of Cellular Biochemistry
Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
Scientific Reports
Funding Review
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia - FCT (2026 - present)
Contact
Email: l.quayle@shu.ac.uk or drlquayle@gmail.com
Website: www.lewisdoesdata.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lewis-quayle
ResearchGate: researchgate.net/profile/Lewis-Quayle
GitHub: github.com/lquayle88