We all have different levels of experience and different roles, but that doesn't mean we can't all contribute. Through research, we can all play a part in improving the care of the children we look after
About the winners
Dr Sarah Leiter is an ST5 paediatric trainee, currently completing subspecialty training in paediatric oncology in Cambridge. Sarah also has a research role at the University of Cambridge.
Dr Angus Hodder is currently a PhD student, with a specific interest in childhood blood cancers.
Sarah and Angus won the 2025 Outstanding Publication Award for their paper Benefits for children with suspected cancer from routine whole-genome sequencing.
What motivated your clinical research focus?
Dr Sarah Leiter: At the time of starting the research, NHS England had already commissioned the whole genome sequencing programme for children with cancer. In Cambridge, and London, we were quite early adopters of putting whole genome sequencing into routine clinical practice and we started seeing the impact it could have for some children with cancer, for example whole genome sequencing can help clarify diagnoses, identify potential targeted treatments, or reveal that a child has what we call a germline cancer predisposition, meaning they are more likely than other children to develop cancer.
As we were seeing these benefits in clinical practice, we wanted to formally analyse and quantify the impact for patients. That's why we set out to review all the children who had undergone whole genome sequencing for either solid tumours in Cambridge or haematological malignancies at Great Ormond Street and that led to a clinical review of approximately 280 patients.
We felt it was important to share those findings, both nationally with other people who've got access to all genome sequencing through Genomics England, but also internationally, because we strongly believe that we can improve the care for children with cancer through this technology.
Dr Angus Hodder: We could see that whole genome sequencing was providing tangible benefits to children in the clinic, and that was really motivating. It's also just really interesting as it helps us better understand what a cancer actually is and why cancers that we sometimes group together can actually be quite different.
Genomics helps us identify those differences. What really interested me was that genomics in childhood cancer can be genuinely translational. The research doesn't just stay in the lab, it can transfer directly into clinical practice and actually help the children we care for.
It was that ability for research to have a real, tangible benefit for children that made me want to get involved.
Thinking back to the start of your research journey, what inspired you to pursue research and what continues to motivate you today?
...there's always a child at the beginning and the end of these research journeys
Dr Sarah Leiter: My research journey actually started a long time ago. Even when I was applying to medical school, I knew I had an interest in research. I've always been fascinated by understanding how genetics causes disease, taking that step from identifying a genetic variant in a patient to understanding how that actually leads to a condition developing.
During medical school in Cambridge, I decided to pursue the MB/PhD programme and started my PhD after my fourth year. At the time, I was researching a very rare form of neonatal hypoglycaemia, which ultimately turned out to be caused by a cancer gene.
It was then quite an organic journey back into medicine. I finished medical school, started working as a doctor, and then undertook a rotation in paediatric oncology. It quickly became obvious that this was where my interests came together. Clinically, it was a specialty I really enjoyed, and from a research perspective, my previous experience of understanding how genetic variants contribute to disease was directly applicable to paediatric oncology.
I've always enjoyed research. I'm very nosy and detail-oriented, and I love being the first person to figure something out, or having those moments where you finally understand why something is happening. Research gives you the opportunity to explore questions in real depth, which you don't always have the time to do in day-to-day clinical practice.
What continues to motivate me is the belief that we can provide better care for patients by being active participants in research. By giving children and families opportunities to take part in research, we can improve care not only for the patients we see today, but for future patients as well, and that's really important to me.
Dr Angus Hodder: When you're doing your day-to-day work on the ward, which is brilliant, you naturally start thinking about what more we can do and how we can better understand disease to help children. At the time, genomics felt, and still feels, like one of the most exciting ways to do that in childhood cancer.
What really attracted me was that genomics can be genuinely translational. The research doesn't just stay in the lab, it can directly help children and influence how we care for them.
What continues to motivate me is remembering that there's always a child at the beginning and the end of these research journeys. I'm very fortunate to work with primary patient samples, so we're working directly with tissue and cancer samples from children. The child is always at the centre of what we're doing and that's what we're trying to improve.
How do you involve paediatric patients and families in your research and what impact has this had?
Dr Sarah Leiter: Our research includes a formal patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) representative. However, for me, it's often the informal feedback from families that has had the biggest impact.
We've met families whose children have undergone whole genome sequencing and have been able to share findings from the research with them. Recently, I gave a family a copy of a paper we had written that included their child's case.
The child's mother was so pleased to see it and I think it meant a lot to know that the challenges their child had faced, having had cancer weren't only helping their own family, but could also help other families in the future.
Those interactions have been incredibly positive and are a powerful reminder of why we do this work.
Dr Angus Hodder: Children treated at Great Ormond Street are often involved in research in some capacity, and many parents and children become really interested in understanding the science behind new treatments and therapies.
Because you build long-term relationships with families, they often become invested in the research as well.
Some of the children treated at the hospital actually helped fund my fellowship through charitable donations. One child in particular, Eddie Pessoa de Araujo, who had T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, helped make that possible.
For me, that creates a really direct connection between patients, families and researchers. I hope we've been able to give something back through research that has had an impact and helped support the wider adoption of whole genome sequencing in the UK.
It's quite a nice loop really.
Since receiving the award, how has your research progressed? Have you taken on any new or additional projects?
Dr Sarah Leiter: I continue to be involved in research focused on the genetics of children's cancers. Last autumn, I was awarded an Academic Clinical Lectureship at the University of Cambridge, which I will be taking up in August.
That's really exciting because it will give me dedicated research time, with 50% of my role focused on continuing cancer genomics research and developing the next stage of my academic career.
Dr Angus Hodder: Since receiving the award, I've gone on to undertake a PhD looking at why some children do and don't respond to the drug blinatumomab. The project actually started with collecting relatively small amounts of clinical information on children receiving what was then a new treatment. From there, one thing led to another.
I became involved in projects exploring whether clinical genome sequencing helps children with cancer and found that it does. At the same time, I expanded data collection from a single hospital to a national level, examining how blinatumomab was being used to treat B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. That work has since led to several publications.
Blinatumomab has been a game-changing treatment and is now used for children with the most common type of childhood cancer. However, we still don't fully understand why it works extremely well for some patients and less well for others.
My PhD uses sequencing approaches to better understand those differences and, ultimately, identify why some children respond to the treatment while others do not.
What have been the key learnings or clinical and personal highlights from your research journey so far?
You have a responsibility not just to the child who is right in front of you, but also to helping improve child health more broadly
Dr Sarah Leiter: I think, in terms of research, what I really enjoy is the process of finding out new things. For me, that can be a real highlight. I'll never forget being a PhD student in my second year when things weren't going very well, and then receiving a spreadsheet of genomic variants from our collaborators.
I remember opening the spreadsheet and immediately thinking, "That's the answer. We now know why this child has got what they've got." It was such an empowering moment because suddenly everything made sense.
That's obviously a very big example, but it also happens in smaller ways all the time. You find yourself thinking, "Oh, okay, now I understand what's happening." To me, that's one of the most exciting aspects of research, both on an individual level, being the first person to know something, and on a broader level, contributing something new to the wider body of knowledge and sharing those learnings with others.
I would encourage everybody to participate in research because I'm a strong believer that, if you're working with children in the UK, you have a responsibility not just to the child who is right in front of you, but also to helping improve child health more broadly.
We all have different levels of experience and different roles, but that doesn't mean we can't all contribute. Through research, we can all play a part in improving the care of the children we look after.
Dr Angus Hodder: Remember to always have fun. You don't do good research unless you're aiming to have fun.
What are your plans for the next stage of your research career?
Dr Angus Hodder: Doing this paper helped me secure a PhD, which I'm now just finishing, so that's been a very direct impact. I was fortunate to receive Wellcome funding, and I'm completing my PhD at Cambridge in the same lab as Sarah, which has been brilliant.
I'm now looking at moving into further academic posts and, hopefully one day, leading my own lab focused on the genomics of childhood cancer. I suppose this work really pushed me towards a career in academia, which I'm very happy about.
Dr Sarah Leiter: Similar to Angus, the paper and the award helped me secure an Academic Clinical Lectureship.
I'm now in the process of developing the next stages of that research programme and applying for further funding, with the long-term aim of leading my own research group in the future.
What advice would you give to aspiring researchers starting out in this field?
Dr Angus Hodder: I would say you've just got to get stuck in. The only real way to learn about research is by doing research, which can be difficult because people are so busy.
Try to carve out some time and get involved, no matter how small the project may seem. I started with case reports and collecting data for audits on a very small scale, and one thing led to another.
I don't think you can plan exactly where you're going to end up when you set off. I wouldn't advise people to think they've got it all sorted from the beginning. You've just got to follow your nose a little bit and see where it takes you.
Dr Sarah Leiter: I'd add to that by saying take opportunities when they arise, and seek out supervisors, mentors and senior colleagues who are supportive and willing to help.
Sometimes it starts with an informal conversation over coffee and, before you know it, you're doing a PhD.
I think it's really important to have those conversations, keep an open mind and then, as Angus says, just get stuck in.
If research were an animal, what would it be and why?
Dr Angus Hodder: I'd probably say a platypus because it's such an intriguing biological mash-up.
Dr Sarah Leiter: It's a little bit like Fluffy, the three-headed dog from Harry Potter. It can seem really intimidating at first, and there are lots of different facets to it, but in the end it's actually this really awesome beast that you're trying to understand and tame.
How you can get involved in child health research
Our Trainee Research Network published a series on RCPCH Podcasts, Building Capacity and the first episode explores the different routes you can take. You can also also join one of our free monthly 'TREES' seminars for paediatric residents, designed to build your confidence and aligned with the training curriculum. And, we are partnering with GAPRUK on a new Journal Club for child health professionals, with each session featuring a review of a research paper.