Dr Victoria Wykes MB PhD, FRCS (SN)

Dr Victoria Wykes

Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences
Associate Clinical Professor
Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon

Contact details

Email
v.wykes@bham.ac.uk
Address
Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Victoria Wykes is an Associate Clinical Professor at the University 麻豆精选 (UoB) and Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB).

Her aim is to leverage the operative environment to develop and deliver precision therapies in neuro-oncology care. She is chief investigator of a surgical tissue pipeline to better understand the genomic and metabolic heterogeneity in brain cancer evolution, and collaborates with scientists to develop advanced 2D/3D models. Victoria has led the introduction of Whole Genome Sequencing as standard of care for brain cancer patients. QEHB now has the largest, most established NHS neuro-oncology genomic service in the UK. She has also introduced day-case biopsy of brain tumour for appropriately selected patients and has embedded a research culture into the patient neuro-oncology journey.

Victoria is passionate about education and co-leads the UoB intercalated MSc programme for medical students. As UoB/QEHB lead host of four national conferences/symposia she has co-ordinated successful meetings. She chaired the 2024 Society of British Neurological Surgeons Conference Lifelong learning session "Tissue is the Issue: Neurosurgeons role in the future of precision medicine" and contributed to a recent Lancet Oncology paper promoting embedding serial tissue sampling in brain tumour clinical trials to improve glioma drug development (DOI:).

As co-lead of Brain Tumour Education and Research paTient and public Involvement group (BERTI), Victoria co-ordinates quarterly meetings to educate patients and carers about brain tumours. BERTI online research focus groups have provided valuable input into trial design for applications to CRUK, NIHR and MRC, and ensures the patient voice contributes to QEHB clinical pathways design. 

Qualifications

Academic Clinical Professor, Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon 

  • FRCS Surg. Neurol. (Royal College of Surgeons England) 2014
  • MRCS (Royal College of Surgeons England) 2007
  • MB PhD in Neuroscience/Molecular Biology, University College London, 2005
  • BSc (Hons) Pharmacology, University College London, 1997

Biography

Victoria Wykes qualified from University College London with a BSc (Hons) in pharmacology and MB PhD in nitric oxide neuro-signalling. She completed North Thames neurosurgical training and senior clinical fellowships in neurosurgical oncology (University Hospital Southampton) and epilepsy surgery (National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery). 

Victoria joined the University 麻豆精选 and University Hospital Birmingham in January 2019 and has been working with the Professor Colin Watts and the University 麻豆精选 Clinical Trials team to set up the Tessa Jowell Brain Matrix platform study. Victoria has established the Brain Surgical Tissue for Advanced Tissue Models (BRAIN STAT) pipeline.  

Teaching

2022: Co-director of Intercalating MSc Clinical Sciences for medical students, UoB 

Victoria also teaches on the following modules:

Research

  • Rapid brain tumour diagnostics for precision medicine targets and clinical trials
  • Repetitive brain tumour sampling in context of clinical trials to improve understanding of tumour microenvironment
  • Development of patient-derived brain tumour models

Other activities

2025: Elected as British Neuro-Oncology Society (BNOS) Honorary Secretary

2023: Contributed to British Neuro-Oncology Society guideline for tissue sampling of brain tumours addressing insufficient material submitted for diagnosis, genetics and emerging novel therapies 

2021: Founder of Brain tumour Education and Research paTient and public Involvement group (BERTI). We have run thrice yearly educational webinars. Annual engagement in Brain Awareness Weekend at the Midlands Art Centre and Think Tank. Research focus groups with people affected by brain cancers to ensure their voice contributes to research projects. BERTI was a finalist in the UoB PPI Impact award 2023.

2021: UoB/UHB Conference lead

  • 07/2026 BNOS Annual Conference: Local Therapies for brain tumour. 2.5 day meeting.
  • 09/2024 SBNS Conference & BNOS Subspecialty day Edgbaston Cricket Stadium, 3.5 day meeting >550 global delegates.
  • 02/2022 organised and chaired a BNOS/British Neuro-pathology Society joint virtual webinar: Update on the 2021 WHO classification of tumours of the CNS attended >300 global delegates.
  • 07/2021 I organised and chaired the UoB/UHB British Neuro-Oncology Society two day virtual annual meeting titled Precision Medicine and the Future of Neuro-Oncology  > 400 global delegates.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Wykes, V, Albanese, E, Crispi, V, Manan, S, Khan, T, Cole, N, Bennett, C, Hughes, L, Vafadar, N, Cheng, V, Pohl, U, Raghavan, M, Wallis, Y & Watts, C 2025, '', BJC Reports, vol. 3, 79.

Jen, JP, Li, X, Patel, M, Haq, H, Pohl, U, Nagaraju, S, Wykes, V, Sanghera, P, Watts, C & Sawlani, V 2024, '', Neuro-oncology advances, vol. 6, no. 1, vdae065.

Parikh, S, U, UA, Heyes, G, Evison, F, Meade, S, Benghiat, H, Hartley, A, Hickman, M, Sawlani, V, Chavda, S, Wykes, V & Sanghera, P 2024, '', Clinical Oncology.

Goel, A, Flintham, R, Pohl, U, Nagaraju, S, Meade, S, Sanghera, P, Benghiat, H, Ughratdar, I, Wykes, V & Sawlani, V 2024, '', World Neurosurgery, vol. 188, pp. e71-e80.

Watts, C, Savage, J, Patel, A, Mant, R, Wykes, V, Pohl, U, Bulbeck, H, Apps, J, Sharpe, R, Thompson, G, Waldman, AD, Ansorge, O & Billingham, L 2022, '', BMJ open, vol. 12, no. 9, e067123.

Sun, R, Sharma, S, Benghiat, H, Meade, S, Sanghera, P, Bramwell, G, Nagaraju, S, Pohl, U, Dawson, C, Petrik, V, Ughratdar, I, White, A, Zisakis, A, Ramalingam, S, Sawlani, V, Watts, C & Wykes, V 2022, '', Neuro-Oncology Practice, pp. 1-9.

Solomou, G, Gharooni, A-A, Patel, W, Gillespie, CS, Gough, M, Venkatesh, A, Poon, MTC, Wykes, V, Price, SJ, Jenkinson, MD, Watts, C & Plaha, P 2022, '', BMJ open, vol. 12, no. 7, e056059.

Toman, E, Soon, WC, Thanabalasundaram, G, Burns, D, Petrik, V, Watts, C, Wykes, V & White, A 2021, '', BMJ open, vol. 11, no. 2, e047063.

COVID-CNSMDT study group, Price, SJ, Joannides, A, Plaha, P, Afshari, FT, Albanese, E, Barua, NU, Chan, HW, Critchley, G, Flannery, T, Fountain, DM, Mathew, RK, Piper, RJ, Poon, MTC, Rajaraman, C, Rominiyi, O, Smith, S, Solomou, G, Solth, A, Surash, S, Wykes, V, Watts, C, Bulbeck, H, Hutchinson, P & Jenkinson, MD 2020, '', BMJ open, vol. 10, no. 8, e040898.

Rodionov, R, O'Keeffe, A, Nowell, M, Rizzi, M, Vakharia, VN, Wykes, V, Eriksson, SH, Miserocchi, A, McEvoy, AW, Ourselin, S & Duncan, JS 2019, '', Journal of Neurosurgery, pp. 1-8.

British Neurosurgical Trainee Research Collaborative & Wykes, V 2018, '', Neuro-Oncology Practice, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 74-81.

Jones, V, Wykes, V, Cohen, N, Thompson, D & Jacques, TS 2018, '', Histopathology, vol. 72, no. 7, pp. 1136-1144.

Xie, Y, Thom, M, Ebner, M, Wykes, V, Desjardins, A, Miserocchi, A, Ourselin, S, McEvoy, AW & Vercauteren, T 2017, '', Journal of Biomedical Optics, vol. 22, no. 11, 116006 .

Preprint

Watts, C, Savage, J, Patel, A, Mant, R, Wykes, V, Pohl, U, Bulbeck, H, Apps, J, Sharpe, R, Thompson, G, Waldman, A, Ansorge, O, Billingham, L & Watts, C 2022 '' medRxiv.

Review article

Sawlani, V, Patel, MD, Davies, N, Flintham, R, Wesolowski, R, Ughratdar, I, Pohl, U, Nagaraju, S, Petrik, V, Kay, A, Jacob, S, Sanghera, P, Wykes, V, Watts, C & Poptani, H 2020, '', Insights into Imaging, vol. 11, no. 1, 84.