Monday 10 November 2025
Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite (pictured) has been appointed as the new Co-Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Manchester Clinical Research Facility (CRF).
Following a competitive recruitment process, Prof Thistlethwaite, who is already Medical Director of the NIHR Manchester CRF at The Christie, will take over the role from Professor Ben Parker, who had been Co-Director since 2022. Prof Parker was appointed as Director in June 2025.
Prof Thistlethwaite is a Medical Oncology Consultant in the Experimental Cancer Medicine Team at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. She is Director of the Innovate Manchester Advanced Therapy Centre Hub (iMATCH) and an Honorary Professor at The University of Manchester.
Hosted by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) in partnership with The Christie and the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester CRF operates in six facilities based at NHS teaching hospitals across Greater Manchester;
The Christie, Manchester Royal Infirmary, North Manchester General Hospital, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Salford Royal Hospital and Wythenshawe Hospital.
Prof Thistlethwaite said:
“I am honoured to be appointed as the new Co-Director of the NIHR Manchester CRF. As a clinician, my focus is always on patients, making sure they feel supported and well cared for while taking part in cutting-edge trials.
“I am very proud of how the NIHR Manchester CRF has grown over the last few years, to now treating hundreds of people on early phase studies each year, and I am excited to build on this progress and work with colleagues across all six of the NIHR Manchester CRF sites to ensure we can continue to deliver opportunities for our diverse communities to take part in clinical trials in Greater Manchester.”
Prof Parker said:
“Huge congratulations to Prof Thistlethwaite on this well-deserved appointment. At Manchester CRF we are committed to supporting research that is inclusive and built on strong partnerships.
“Together, with our research teams, patients, participants, funders and industry collaborators, we will continue to drive forward experimental medicine research into new treatments that have the potential to truly improve people’s health and quality of life.”
Prof Thistlethwaite’s research interests include how the immune system can be harnessed against cancer, in particular personalised immune cell treatments, combination immunotherapies (using different types of immune-based treatments together to help the body target cancer more effectively) and immune biomarkers or clues in the body which can demonstrate how the immune system is responding to cancer and treatment.