Personal Statement
Lucy is a research fellow in the department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine at the University of Liverpool. Lucy gained a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of West Virginia, an MSc in Forensic and Analytical Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde, an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Manchester, and currently holds a fellowship with Pancreatic Cancer UK. Lucy's work is focused on early detection of pancreatic cancer, particularly on the development and translation of diagnostic biomarkers. Lucy is interested in the relationship between pancreatic cancer and diabetes, including the mechanisms underpinning the development of diabetes in individuals with pancreatic cancer.

Lucy's previous projects have used aptamer technology to explore the proteome in pancreatic cancer and diabetes (PI: Cancer Research UK Primer award), and established a cohort of individuals with new-onset diabetes to investigate earlier detection of pancreatic cancer (Co-I: CRUK UK-Early Detection Initiative for Pancreatic Cancer, programme award). Her other funded projects have involved the creation of risk stratification tools for pancreatic cancer using health record data combined with molecular profiling, the use of multi-functional targeted nanoparticles for MR imaging enhancement of pre-malignant pancreatic lesions, and investigating the transcriptomic landscape of pancreatic cancer in the presence, or absence of glucose dysregulation.

Research Overview
Research Grants:
Oldfield, L., "Advancing biomarkers and screening devices for earlier detection of pancreatic cancer". Jan 2025 £298,000 Pancreatic Cancer UK Career Foundation Fellowship

Costello, E., Oldfield, L., Halloran, C., Greenhalf, W., Slupsky, J., Evans, E. “Dissecting the biology underpinning pancreatic cancer-associated diabetes”. June 2021 £100,000 Pancreatic Cancer UK Innovation Fund Award

Chouhan, M., Hoskins, C., Chang, D., Oldfield, L., Acedo Nunez, P., Ni, M., Golbabaee, M. “Early detection of pre-malignant pancreatic cancer using multifunctional targeted nanoparticles for MR imaging with super-resolution reconstruction and MR fingerprinting”. May 2021 £100,000 Cancer Research UK Sandpit Innovation Award

Acedo Nunez, P., Santa Olalla, A., Kunzmann, A., Tan, P., Golbabaee, M., Oldfield, L., Brennan, P. “Earlier detection of pancreatic cancer through personalised assessment of risk combined with non-invasive infrared spectroscopy”. May 2021 £99,997 Cancer Research UK Sandpit Innovation Award

Goldring, C., Lister, A., Oldfield, L., Evans, A., Costello, E., Plagge, A., Owen, A. “Development of a high-throughput in vitro compound screening assay for the determination of anti-SARS CoV-2 activity”. July 2020 £18,078 BBSRC IAA: COVID-19 Award

Oldfield, L., Costello, E., Greenhalf, W., Halloran, C., and Psarelli, E. “Application of deep proteomics using an aptamer-based technology to advance early detection of pancreatic cancer”. Sept 2020 £104,000 CRUK Primer Award

Costello, E., Halloran, C., Greenhalf, W., Ghaneh, P., Palmer, D., Oldfield, L., Van Der Meer, R., Alison, L., Purewal, T. and Psarelli, E. “Detecting pancreatic cancer in the largest high-risk group for this disease: a top-down approach”. April 2019 £2,180,000 Cancer Research UK Programme Award

Oldfield, L. “Applying state-of-the art mass spectrometry-based proteomic techniques and quantitative methodologies to the search for novel biomarkers of pancreatic cancer”. Sept 2016 €3,000 EU COST Research Exchange Grant