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Professor Lesley Anderson is Academic Lead for the Industrial Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Digital Diagnostics (iCAIRD) for Grampian. She is leading artificial intelligence evaluations at the University of Aberdeen. 

Prof Anderson joined the Aberdeen Centre for Health Data Science at the University of Aberdeen in March 2020. She trained at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) graduating with a PhD in cancer epidemiology in 2004 and an undergraduate degree (first class Honours) in Biomedical Science in 2001. She has a Masters in Population Health-based Evidence obtained by distance learning from the University of Manchester (distinction level) in 2006. Professor Anderson joined QUB as an academic in 2010 after completing two highly respected fellowships: an Academic Fellowship (funded by the UK Medical Research Council) and a Cancer Prevention Fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health, Maryland, United States of America. Professor Anderson then joined the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (NICR) in 2017 as Deputy Director overseeing the production of Official Statistics for Northern Ireland and developing the NICR Research Advisory Group.

Tumour Angiogenesis, Radiotracer Development, In vitro testing, Method Development

My scientific interest involves Molecular Imaging applied to oncology field. In particular, I support the use of PET imaging in order to evaluate and assess a tumour's stage and metabolism, and set up a proper therapeutic strategy.

Zhihong's main research interests are in medical ultrasound and photonics, working closely with clinicians and industrial collaborators to maximise research impact and facilitate translation into practice. She utilises acoustics and optics as tools to understand and explore the mechanisms of tissue response, which in turn support new research initiatives on tissue characterization and interventional medical devices.

She leads a wide range of activities incorporating tissue mimicking phantom fabrication; mechanical, acoustic, thermal and optical characterization of tissue; 3D reconstruction of human anatomy and simulation, vibration analysis and robotics.

Uniquely, her group have developed a method to combine ultrasound and photonics to investigate the underlying, common physical mechanisms in three diverse areas: ultrasound and photonics instrumentation for ultrasonic surgical tool design and characterization; sono- and optical- elastography for medical diagnosis; and image guided and robotic assisted interventions.

Cancer research and development, drug discovery of antitumoral agents, targeted therapies, molecular imaging as innovative tool of diagnosis and treatment of brain tumours, medicinal chemistry of PARP inhibitors, radiochemistry, pre-clinical studies.