NEWS


Professor Sarah Coupland elected as next RCPath President


Professor Sarah Coupland has been elected as President Elect of The Royal College of Pathologists. Professor Coupland has extensive


clinical experience in ophthalmic pathology, haematopathology, molecular pathology, digital pathology and biobanking. She is currently the Ophthalmic Pathology co-Lead of one of the four supraregional NHSE eye pathology services at Liverpool Clinical Laboratories. She also leads the world- renowned Liverpool Ocular Oncology Research Group, delivering high impact research focused on ocular melanomas and lymphomas. From 2014 to 2019, she was Director of the North


West Cancer Research Centre at the University of Liverpool. She is also the current President of


the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland and actively promotes academic pathology. Sarah additionally brings international experience as a past President of the International Society of Ophthalmic Pathology. Sarah brings over 16 years of


experience with The Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) to the role of President, contributing to College publications, training and webinars. She has also held senior strategic roles, including Vice President for Communications and, most recently, College Registrar. She will begin her role as President at the AGM at the end of November 2026. Professor Sarah Coupland said: “As


President, my priority is to work with members across all specialties, both across the UK and internationally, to strengthen pathology services and champion our essential role in patient care. My focus will be to accelerate the six strategic aims of the College’s Workforce Strategy, concentrating on training the next generation of pathologists, retaining our established workforce and reforming our ways of working.”


Huge growth for NHS bowel cancer screening


New figures show that NHS screening for bowel cancer is now reaching millions more people compared to a decade ago. Almost 7 million people have had bowel screening from the NHS during 2024/25, compared to around 4.7 million in 2014/15. Since bowel screening


started two decades ago, the NHS has caught 70,000 cancers with almost 85 million people in total screened. A further 270,000 people have benefited from regular surveillance after screening highlighted they may be vulnerable to developing the disease. The NHS has transformed bowel


screening since it was introduced in 2006 for people in their 60s, with the lifesaving test now available to people aged 50 to 74. Only half of people aged 60 to 74 came forward for screening 20 years ago, but this has risen to more than 70% last year. It has never been easier to get screened, with the NHS sending around 8.7 million home- testing kits each year. The kit, known as the faecal immunochemical test (FIT), checks for blood in a small stool sample, which can be a sign of bowel cancer. The National Cancer Plan for England,


published at the start of the year, commited to delivering 17,000 earlier diagnoses by 2035 and saving almost 6,000 lives thanks to the home-testing kits. Professor Peter Johnson, National


Clinical Director for Cancer at NHS England said: “The NHS has transformed bowel screening over the last two decades, making it easier than ever before for people’s cancer to be picked up, and the sooner it is spoted the easier it is to treat. And thanks to the fantastic work of Dame Deborah James we’ve seen a big jump in the number of people taking up the offer of bowel screening. Bowel cancer has become more common in recent years, and anyone aged between 50 and 74-years-old should be regularly tested.”


ProImmune collaboration to advance disease research


Immunology firm ProImmune has announced a collaboration with the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) Galveston National Laboratory (GNL), a high-containment, infectious disease research facility, to develop innovative tools for studying high- consequence emerging and endemic infectious diseases. Under the agreement, ProImmune’s


Ankyrons will be evaluated as molecular tools to enable precise detection, localisation, and functional interrogation of viral proteins across complex experimental systems compatible with high-containment research. The collaboration combines


ProImmune’s Ankyron target binding 10 WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM May 2026


reagent technology with the GNL’s expertise in the immunopathology of emerging viruses. Studies will be carried out in the laboratory of Dr Courtney Woolsey which specialises in the study of emerging and endemic viral pathogens under maximum-containment conditions (BSL-4) to investigate viral protein function, immune dysregulation, and tissue-specific responses that inform the next-generation of vaccines and therapeutics. The teams will initially focus on validating Ankyrons specific for viral proteins from pathogens of major global health concern, including Bundibugyo virus, Zaire ebolavirus, Sudan ebolavirus, Reston ebolavirus, Human Enterovirus 71, and Mpox virus.


University of Liverpool


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