Daniel Brewer

Professor Daniel Brewer is a leading academic in Medical Bioinformatics and Genomics at the University of East Anglia, specifically within the Norwich Medical School. His roles include heading the Cancer Genetics Team, serving as Deputy Director of the Metabolic Health Research Centre, and leading bioinformatics initiatives in global prostate cancer consortia. Brewer holds a PhD in Computational Biology from University College London and has over a decade of experience in applying large-scale 'omics data to improve clinical outcomes for prostate cancer patients.

His research focuses on genomic sequencing studies, cancer subtype classification, biomarker development (e.g., the Prostate Urine Risk score), and the role of bacteria in cancer. Notable contributions include leading the CRUK-ICGC Prostate UK group, expanding it into the Pan-Prostate Cancer Group (PPCG), and developing the SEPATH pipeline for pathogen detection in genomic data. He is also active in teaching, including Problem-Based Learning (PBL) tutoring and supervising 6 PhD students.

Brewer has secured grants totaling millions from organizations like Prostate Cancer UK and the National Institute for Health. He chairs the bioinformatics committee for the Prostate UK group and contributes to global initiatives like Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes Project. His work has yielded over 76 publications in journals like Nature and Science, and he received the 2022 European Urology Oncology SoMe Award.

• Education: MSci Physics (Imperial College London), MRes Biological Complexity (UCL), PhD Computational Biology (UCL)
• Key Projects: Leveraging PPCG data for prostate cancer prediction, PURSuiT biomarker validation, bacterial-in-cancer studies
• Grants: Prostate Cancer UK (£2.5M), Movember Foundation (£1.8M), Big C Appeal (£1.1M)
• Leadership: Norwich Cancer Research Network (NCRN) founder, UEA Biomedical Review Committee member

Brewer’s lab focuses on translating genomic insights into clinical tools, with ongoing efforts to develop diagnostic tests and improve treatment strategies for aggressive prostate cancers.