Professor Jones is Chief Scientific Officer of PharosAI, a major UK initiative launched in 2025. PharosAI is creating a platform that links vast quantities of different types of data – including NHS patient records, gene sequencing data and tissue imaging – to enable researchers to apply AI tools to improve cancer diagnosis, drug discovery and treatment. It is a partnership between Queen Mary University of London, King’s College London, Barts Health NHS Trust, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, backed by more than £40 million in public and private investment.
Professor Jones has held national leadership roles in genomic medicine, including as Lead for Molecular Pathology at Genomics England during the 100,000 Genomes Project. She also co-leads the Breast Cancer Now Biobank, the UK’s largest collection of high-quality breast tissue, breast cells and blood samples from people with breast cancer, which she helped establish in 2010.
At Barts Cancer Institute, she leads a laboratory studying ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS – an early, non-invasive form of breast cancer that can develop into invasive breast cancer in around 20% of people. Her team is working to understand who needs treatment (such as surgery) and who may be able to avoid it, by studying how DCIS progresses and which markers could guide treatment decisions.
Alongside her research, Professor Jones has helped shape education and training in pathology and genomic medicine across the UK. In addition to playing a major role in designing and teaching Queen Mary’s cancer sciences postgraduate courses, she established the UK National Genomics Training Programme for pathology trainees and has trained hundreds of pathologists in genomic testing.
Professor Jones is also committed to involving patients and the public in research. She helped establish VOICE, the first UK science training course for patient advocates, in partnership with the charity Independent Cancer Patients’ Voice. As part of PharosAI, she also co-founded PIVOT, the Patient Involvement, Voice and Outreach Team, which brings together patients, carers and community representatives to help shape how AI is developed and used in healthcare.
Her election to the Academy recognises a career dedicated to realising the potential of personalised medicine, genomics and AI to transform the lives of people with cancer.
