Professor John Greenman

Professor John Greenman

Professor of Tumour Immunology

Faculty and Department

  • Faculty of Health Sciences
  • Hull York Medical School

Summary

John is a tumour immunologist with extensive experience of developing lab on a chip technology for analysing tumour biopsies.

He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and his interdisciplinary immunobiology group works closely with clinicians, chemists and biomedical engineers. His research work has focused on Glioblastoma and tumours of the head and neck region, identifying novel markers of progression or treatment response. He has supervised successfully more than 100 postgraduate students (PhD, MD and MSc by Thesis) during his time in Hull.

1991-1995 Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, MRC Cellular Immunology Unit, University of Oxford

1995-1999 Lecturer in Immunology, Dept of Surgery, University of Hull

1999-2004 Senior Lecturer in Tumour Immunology

2004- 2009 Reader in Tumour Immunology

2009 - to date Prof of Tumour Immunology

REF2014 - Appointed as Output Assessor for Panel UoA3 (2014)

REF2020 - UoA3 Panel member

BSc programmes

- Microbiology and Immunology (Level 4)

- Clinical Microbiology and Immunology (Level 5)

- Professional and Research skills for Biomedical Sciences (Level 5)

- Canc er biology (Level 6)

- Final Year Research Projects (Level 6)

MSc programmes

- Tumour Immunology and Microenvironment

- Research Project and Dissertation

Recent outputs

View more outputs

Journal Article

The impact of impact: an invitation to philosophise

Brauer, R., Björn, I., Burgess, G., Dymitrow, M., Greenman, J., Grzelak-Kostulska, E., Pöllänen, P., & Williams, T. (in press). The impact of impact: an invitation to philosophise. Minerva, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-024-09558-8

Disposable and sensitive electrochemical magneto-immunosensor for point-of-care HCV diagnostics: Targeting HCVcAg, the active viremia biomarker, in patient samples

Abo-Zeid, M. N., Walter, C., Kitchman, K., Eastick, K., Corless, L., & Greenman, J. (2025). Disposable and sensitive electrochemical magneto-immunosensor for point-of-care HCV diagnostics: Targeting HCVcAg, the active viremia biomarker, in patient samples. Biosensors & bioelectronics, 272, Article 117104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2024.117104

'How Long Do I Have?' – Examining survival outcomes in laryngeal cancer patients managed with non-curative intent in Northern UK: Insights from the Northern Head & Neck Cancer Alliance Retrospective Study

Rajgor, A., Hurley, R., Douglas, C. M., Paterson, C., Moor, J., Lester, S., Sionis, S., Davies, K., O'Hara, J., Inman, G., Jones, T., Hamilton, D. W., Hill, S., O’Neill, S., McLoughlin, A., Jose, J., Wong, W., Ho, M., Horne, D., Homer, J., …Mandrik, O. (in press). ‘How Long Do I Have?’ – Examining survival outcomes in laryngeal cancer patients managed with non-curative intent in Northern UK: Insights from the Northern Head & Neck Cancer Alliance Retrospective Study. Clinical otolaryngology, https://doi.org/10.1111/coa.14260

A new immunomagnetic microfluidic device for characterizing EGFR mutations in circulating tumor cells from patients withnon-small cell lung cancer

Ogidi, N. O., Lind, M. J., & Greenman, J. (online). A new immunomagnetic microfluidic device for characterizing EGFR mutations in circulating tumor cells from patients withnon-small cell lung cancer. Tumor Discovery, Article 3987. https://doi.org/10.36922/td.3987

An in vitro multi-organ microphysiological system (MPS) to investigate the gut-to-brain translocation of neurotoxins

Jones, E. J., Skinner, B. M., Parker, A., Baldwin, L. R., Greenman, J., Carding, S. R., & Funnell, S. G. (2024). An in vitro multi-organ microphysiological system (MPS) to investigate the gut-to-brain translocation of neurotoxins. Biomicrofluidics, 18(5), Article 054105. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0200459

Research interests

Coming from an immunology background, Professor Greenman is extremely interested in understanding how the immune system is often subverted during carcinogenesis, and more importantly how such knowledge can be used clinically (diagnostically, prognostically or therapeutically).

Current and recent grants

Breast Cancer UK £199,108 (Wade and Greenman) The role of endocrine disrupting chemicals on extracellular vesicle release and breast carcinogenesis. Sep 2025 – Aug 2027.

Help for Health (£150,000) Six MSc Research studentships (Greenman). Nov 2022 – Sep 2026.

T Cypher Bio (£16,000). Characterization of cancer specific T cells identified from head and neck cancer patient samples (Greenman). July 2023 – June 2027.

Brignall Charitable Trust (£75,000). Detection of novel biomarkers for identifying thyroid tumours using novel microfluidic technology (Greenman and Green) Nov 2022 – Oct 2025.

NERC Discipline Hopping award £13,582 (Beltran-Alvarez, Joyce, Greenman) Fish on chips: developing a new microfluidics model as a tool for testing and mitigating the effects of environmental and biological contaminants on fish. 12/2022 – 04/2023

Development of point-of-care and wearable sensors for Hepatitis C diagnostics. £75,000 (Ibrahim, Walter, Greenman) British Council Studentship 09/2020 – 08/2023.

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) £439,828 (Greenman, Green – collaboration with UK-HSA and Quadram) SARS-CoV-2 Variant Assessment in Microphysiological Systems (VAMPS) SO11 04/2022 – end 11/2025

Brain Research UK £109, 580 (Marsh – student, Wade, Greenman) The epigenetic regulatory protein CBX2 as a novel therapeutic target for glioblastoma 09/2022 – 09/2025

Commercial. £294,000 (Greenman and Green), Investigating the effect of novel bispecifics targeting immunostimulatory molecules to target human tumour tissue using Hull's tissue-on-chip ex vivo platform 01/04/2022 – 311/03/2023 (with year extension agreed)

H2020-MSCA-RISE-2016, €976,000 (€153k to Hull) (Greenman). Blood test for clinical therapy guidance of non-small cell lung cancer patients.

Yorkshire Cancer Research, €99,198 (Lind and Greenman). Peripheral blood detection of EGFR status in lung cancer patients. 01/11/2016 - 31/10/2018

Innovate UK/EPSRC €496,000 (€193k to Hull) (Greenman, Green, Cawthorne). Development of a multi-purpose small animal phantom for pre-clinical radiotherapy studies. 01/03/2016 - 28/02/2018.

Lead investigator

Project

Funder

Grant

Started

Status

Project

Detection of novel biomarkers for identifying thyroid tumours using novel microfluidic technology - Brignall Trust

Funder

J F Brignall Charitable Trust

Grant

£81,000.00

Started

1 November 2022

Status

Ongoing

Project

Help 4 Health MSc studentships (2nd tranche)

Funder

Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust

Grant

£75,000.00

Started

15 February 2025

Status

Ongoing

Project

Investigation of immunological response to chemoradiation, using checkpoint inhibitors, in rectal tumours

Funder

Castle Hill Hospital Cancer Trust Fund

Grant

£75,000.01

Started

1 January 2019

Status

Ongoing

Project

Development of an immune-responsive 3D skin model

Funder

Queen Mary University of London

Grant

£2,900.00

Started

1 May 2019

Status

Complete

Project

Utilising tissue-on-a-chip technology as an ex vivo model of breast cancer metastatic colonisation

Funder

NC3Rs

Grant

£8,771.04

Started

1 July 2019

Status

Complete

Project

Blood test for clinical therapy guidance of non-small cell lung cancer patients

Funder

European Commission

Grant

£144,000.00

Started

1 January 2017

Status

Complete

Project

Development of point-of-care and wearable sensors for Hepatitis C diagnostics

Funder

British Council

Grant

£75,000.00

Started

1 September 2020

Status

Complete

Project

Global analysis of molecular changes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tissue maintained and treated on microfluidic devices

Funder

Medical Research Council

Grant

£44,480.46

Started

1 February 2020

Status

Complete

Project

The effect of corticosteroids on the release of immune modulating factors from Graves’ disease tissue maintained using microfluidic culture.

Funder

British Association of Endocrine & Thyroid Surgeons

Grant

£5,000.00

Started

1 June 2017

Status

Complete

Project

Development of a multipurpose small animal phantom for pre-clinical radiotherapy studies

Funder

Innovate UK

Grant

£193,197.00

Started

1 April 2016

Status

Complete

Project

The Hull-Norwich Gut-Brian Study

Funder

Institute of Food Research

Grant

£33,001.00

Started

31 May 2016

Status

Complete

Project

Lab on a Chip NC3Rs Engagement Award

Funder

NC3Rs

Grant

£1,000.00

Started

15 August 2016

Status

Complete

Project

In vitro analysis of thyroid cancer and it's response to radiotherapy

Funder

Donate for Research Initiative

Grant

£2,500.00

Started

22 May 2015

Status

Complete

Project

Development of an in-vitro model for Parkinson's disease

Funder

University of Essex

Grant

£1,000.00

Started

1 January 2020

Status

Complete

Project

Identification of exosomal miRNA biomarkers in thyroid disease using microfluidics

Funder

ENT UK

Grant

£750.00

Started

1 September 2021

Status

Complete

Project

UKRI Covid 19 Extension Pot - Global analysis of molecular changes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tissue maintained and treated on microfluidic devices

Funder

Medical Research Council

Grant

£13,771.00

Started

1 July 2020

Status

Complete

Project

Support for the Thyroid Cancer Research team

Funder

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Grant

£4,000.00

Started

1 October 2022

Status

Complete

Project

Help 4 Health MSc studentships

Funder

Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust

Grant

£72,842.00

Started

1 November 2022

Status

Complete

Project

Identification of circulating miRNA biomarkers in thyroid disease

Funder

British Association of Endocrine & Thyroid Surgeons

Grant

£5,000.00

Started

1 July 2024

Status

Complete

Project

Understanding cardiac failure in patients with chronic kidney disease

Funder

Hull & East Riding Cardiac Trust Fund

Grant

£19,652.00

Started

1 August 2018

Status

Complete

Co-investigator

Project

Funder

Grant

Started

Status

Project

The epigenetic regulatory protein CBX2 as a novel therapeutic target for glioblastoma multiform

Funder

Brain Research UK

Grant

£109,580.86

Started

19 September 2022

Status

Ongoing

Project

RISE: Establishing super-Resolution Imaging in Hull for impactful multimorbidity ReSEarch MRC Equipment bid 2024 - Confocal Imaging ZEISS Elyra 7 with Lattice SIM²

Funder

Medical Research Council

Grant

£718,262.00

Started

1 October 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

Wolfson Equipment bid 2023 - Confocal Imaging ZEISS Elyra 7 with Lattice SIM²

Funder

Wolfson Foundation

Grant

£500,000.00

Started

1 October 2024

Status

Ongoing

Project

Monitoring the secretome of advanced thyroid cancers for metastatic markers

Funder

British Association of Endocrine & Thyroid Surgeons

Grant

£4,993.00

Started

20 May 2019

Status

Complete

Project

An evaluation of the CAMS - Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality

Funder

NAViGO Health and Social Care CIC

Grant

£75,000.00

Started

1 April 2018

Status

Complete

Project

Exploiting microfluidic technology to predict chemoradiation responses in HNSCC

Funder

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

Grant

£10,000.00

Started

31 May 2022

Status

Complete

Project

Identification of exosomal miRNA biomarkers in thyroid disease using microfluidics

Funder

British Association of Endocrine & Thyroid Surgeons

Grant

£5,000.00

Started

3 January 2022

Status

Complete

Project

NERC Discipline Hopping: Fish on chips: developing a new microfluidics model as a tool for testing and mitigating the effects of environmental and biological contaminants on fish

Funder

Natural Environment Research Council

Grant

£13,582.17

Started

1 December 2022

Status

Complete

Project

Fully humanised model of ageing endothelium to study ageing-associated lung diseases:

Funder

Animal Free Research UK

Grant

£24,606.00

Started

1 April 2024

Status

Complete

Project

Development of fully humanised animal free models to study the role of endothelial cells in chronic diseases.

Funder

Animal Free Research UK

Grant

£1,932.00

Started

2 July 2018

Status

Complete

Project

Evaluating EV as a therapeutic target in Graves’ disease

Funder

Get A-Head Charitable Trust

Grant

£15,000.00

Started

1 February 2019

Status

Complete

Postgraduate supervision

I welcome applications to work with me in either the biomedical applications of microfluidic devices or head and neck immunobiology. These can come from basic scientists or medically trained individuals.

Completed PhDs

104 postgraduate (PhD, MD and MSc (Research)) students successfully supervised since 1999.

PhD

Cheah, R. (2016), Monitoring the Response of Head and Neck Tumour Tissue to Irradiation Using a Microfluidic-Based Approach

Smith, J. (2016), The Effect of HNSCC-derived Soluble Factors on the Proliferation and Function of Immune Cells

Chandrabalan, K. (2016), A Microfluidic Approach to the Study of Cellular Responses to Oxidative Stress

Williamson, J. (2016), The Role of Endothelial Adhesins in Leukocyte Adhesion in Response to Pharmaceutical Agents that Induce Pulmonary Fibrosis

Todd, A. (2016), Role of Hypoxia-Induced Adam 10 in Colorectal Cancer Progression

Pacelli, A. (2015), Development of a Pet Probe for the Imaging of Cox-2 Expression in Cancers

MD

Patel, R. (2016), An Observational Pilot Study to Assess the Potential of a Microfluidic Tissue Culture Model to Predict Rectal Cancer Response to Neo-Adjuvant Therapy

Zahoor, T. (2016), Does HPV-16 Seropositivity Correlate with T-cell Distribution Providing Additional Prognostic Information in Infected HNSCC Patients?

Carr, S. (2013), Assessing the Effects of Radiotherapy on Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma using Microfluidic Techniques

Current PhD supervisors

Currently acting as primary and secondary supervisor to 6 postgraduate students covering all aspects of my research interests.

Top