How I discovered your fingertips could detect cancer!
Simona Francese is Professor of Forensic and Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU), UK. She is the Lead of the Sheffield Multi-Modal Imaging Centre and Head of the Centre for Mass Spectrometry Imaging at SHU. Simona is an expert in the development of MALDI MS Imaging applications and has pioneered its development for the analysis of latent fingermarks and blood to profile offenders. More recently she has engaged in research at the interface between forensics and clinical diagnostics using blood and sweat in fingertip smears to detect cancer and other pathologies. Her research has been implemented in police casework in UK and Europe and has been partly funded by the Home Office, West Yorkshire Police and The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, UK. She engages in public dissemination at all levels including with the Media and two exemplary endeavours are the delivery of a TED talk in Vancouver in 2018 and at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 2023 on molecular fingerprinting. Simona has delivered >200 lectures of which >60 on invitation.
- Can you tell us about yourself/your research background?
I am a chemist by training with a degree in Chemistry and a PhD in chemical sciences. During my second year of PhD studies in Italy, I had decided to broaden my horizons, personal and professional and I successfully applied to a Marie Curie Fellowship that brought me to the University of Leeds, UK. I then had a few research fellowships in Salerno (Italy), Leeds (again), Florence (Italy) and Sheffield (UK) where I subsequently applied for a lectureship. My research background has always been“ all things mass spectrometry”! I had the chance to develop expertise in mass spectrometry and mass spectrometry imaging and apply them to a variety of lifescience problems, from anti-doping to disease mechanisms!
But my passion has always been forensic science and with the new lecturer post in Sheffield, I have been able to significantly develop my research in this area collaborating with Regional Police Forces, The Home Office UK, The Defense Science and Technology Laboratory, UK and the Netherlands Forensic Institute (The Netherlands). Our pioneering technology applied to fingerprints allows provision of biometric information through molecular reconstruction of the ridge pattern as well as of lifestyle and personal information from detecting the molecules within a fingerprint.
And as we were developing an application which enables to establish the sex of the donor from the protein content of their fingerprint, we realise that we could detect proteins that are indicated as breast cancer biomarkers. And this is how, in a completely serendipitous way, another line of my research opened up since 2013 around the development of a non-invasive method to detect breast cancer from fingertip smears. This is the topic of our Scientific Reports paper Russo C. et al 2023, which was the top 100 most downloaded cancer paper in 2023 (4th/100).
- What was the decision process in choosing where to publish?
I realised very soon that our findings were of high significance and potentially of global impact; in fact, breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and the second most common cause of female death in the UK. In the UK, 150 new cases are diagnosed every day, with cases predicted to reach 70,000 annually by 2040.
WHO figures indicate 2.3 million diagnoses and 685,000 breast cancer-related deaths in 2020.
In 2022-23, the UK screening programme led to the detection of18,942 breast cancer cases, enabling earlier access to care. But in the same year in England just over 1 million women did not attend mammographic screening, pointing to a huge loss of early detection opportunity. Research has shown that screening improves cancer survival rates by 20% and that increasing the screening uptake to 80% (from pre-pandemic level) could save approximately £1.3 billion in economic and wellbeing costs. A test that is pain and radiation free, accessible and easy to take like the one we have proposed from a simple swipe of a fingertip, could increase screening uptake and save more lives.
This is why we looked at Journals of high scientific prestige and high reach in order to disseminate our findings and connect with the relevant communities to progress and eventually implement this research. Scientific Report fit the bill and was the obvious and the right choice for us.
- How do you think publishing in an open access journal like Scientific Reports has impacted the visibility of scientific research?
The reach mentioned above is naturally maximised by publishing in open access because additional scientists and Institutions, potentially important for future collaborations, can access scientific papers and I believe that this, together with the significance of the paper, has contributed to such a high number of downloads.
- How has the reaction to your work by the public benefited you? How has publishing with Scientific Reports influenced your research career?
The paper was published on Feb 1st 2023 and we had an immediate high profile media attention starting with the UK The Sunday Times (The Sunday Times
(https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/could-a-fingerprint-test-mark-theend-of-the-mammogram-gz0gb5967)) and then BBC Breakfast (The red sofa) on Feb 19th. From that day there has been a flurry of National and International high Coverage in Europe and the rest of the world thanks, amongst other, to Reuters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shYJtRP1o2Q) and Sky News, as well as participating into national and international documentaries such as the BBC Dr Xand Con or Cure (ttps://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001vwqz/dr-xands-conor-cure-series-2-episode-3) and the CBC Canada Nature of things (to be broadcast shortly). The Media Coverage has literally not stopped since Feb 1st 2023 and has been accompanied by numerous invitations to deliver plenary lectures, nationally (for example the London Breast Meeting London, UK, Sept 2023) and internationally (for example the Medlab Middle East NextGen Medicine Conference in Dubai in 2024) as well as public engagement talks such as at the "Bright Ideas Gathering" in Durham, UK in Nov 2024. This networking has not only benefitted my standing in the field and further raised my profile as a technical and public speaker but has also allowed me to significantly network, meeting relevant individuals and forming new collaborations to progress this research.
- What’s next for you/your research journey?
We need to validate our findings in a much larger pool of women. Presently the test performs better than mammography with 98% accuracy, compared to the 70-90% provided by mammography. It is therefore very promising but we need to confirm these figures as well as determining the specificity of the test and its extendibility to different types of breast cancer, in a bigger cohort of patients. Once we have the "green light", we can then focus on the delivery of the test to GP practices and patients' homes to further increase accessibility and uptake, thus contributing to save more lives. It is a still a long road to walk but we have a clear and defined plan and our Scientific Reports publication has provided us with a really big ahead start. We are pursuing additional and much larger funding for this Programme and we hope that the Research Councils are willing to take the risk that is intrinsic to any research and that in this case, could literally save lives.
- What advice do you have for other researchers on maximizing the dissemination of their work?
Don't miss the opportunity to disseminate your work but strategically look for such opportunities, create and diversify them. Of course publishing peer reviewed papers to give you and your research the appropriate credibility and the standing in the field is crucial and therefore so is the choice of the Journal. Identify the communities that are the primary (and secondary) end users of your research and design activities to reach out to them, both through Scientific Journal publications and through other forms of dissemination (Workshops, technical talks, public speaking, open days). This is all part of pathway to impact and dissemination is a really important impact activity leading to generate impact.
Follow the Topic
-
Scientific Reports
An open access journal publishing original research from across all areas of the natural sciences, psychology, medicine and engineering.
Related Collections
With collections, you can get published faster and increase your visibility.
Artificial intelligence and medical imaging
Publishing Model: Open Access
Deadline: May 01, 2025
Additive manufacturing
Publishing Model: Open Access
Deadline: May 15, 2025
Please sign in or register for FREE
If you are a registered user on Research Communities by Springer Nature, please sign in