Karl Smith-Byrne

Karl is a Senior Molecular Epidemiologist at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit (CEU), University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at Green Templeton College. His research programme uses genetic and proteomic prospective epidemiology in large cohorts to understand the causes of cancer and to identify targets for cancer prevention for follow-up in functional experimental settings.

He co-leads a Cancer Research UK-funded programme investigating the role of circulating proteins in cancer aetiology, with a particular focus on prostate cancer. This work combines large-scale proteomic profiling with genetic approaches to discover causal biomarkers, and those that may be useful as markers for risk stratification. He also co-leads the proteomics component of DISCERN, a European initiative focused on understanding the causes of pancreatic, renal, and colorectal cancer.

Karl is a member of the Team ATLAS, an international collaboration funded through Cancer Grand Challenges that spans immunology, epidemiology, genetics, and clinical science. ATLAS tackles one of the central questions in the field: why some people avoid cancer despite being at high risk. The programme explores immune-mediated pathways of tumour resistance, with the goal of opening up new, biologically grounded approaches to cancer prevention.

He also chairs the EPIC Genetics Working Group and serves on the NCI Cohort Consortium Steering Committee.

As a complement to his academic work, Karl is a patient advocate whose own experience of advanced cancer has shaped both his research priorities and his commitment to ensuring that the patient perspective informs cancer prevention science.

Before joining Oxford as faculty, Karl completed postdoctoral work at the Genomic Epidemiology Branch of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, where he developed multi-omic methods for cancer aetiology, early detection, and prognosis, with a focus on lung and renal cancers. He holds a DPhil in Population Health from Oxford, an MPhil in Biological Anthropology from Cambridge (focusing on evolutionary perspectives on cancer genomics), and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Dundee.