Rachel Guest

Rachel Guest is an Honorary Consultant Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. She holds a Wellcome Trust Clinical Career Development Fellowship to research the molecular mechanisms driving cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer).

Rachel Guest

Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary HPB Consultant Surgeon

  • The University of Edinburgh

Contact details

 

Appointments and Activities

In addition to her clinical practice, Rachel Guest undertakes laboratory-based research to study the links between liver regeneration and primary liver cancer, in particular cholangiocarcinoma.  She works with Professor Ian Tomlinson FRS at the Institute for Genetics & Cancer (IGC) at the University of Edinburgh to study how mutations in the IDH gene in cholangiocarcinoma alter liver cell identity and drive liver tumorigenesis.

Rachel undertook academic surgical training and held a Clinical Lecturer’s appointment at the University of Edinburgh, completing higher surgical training in 2019.  She was appointed to an Advanced Specialist Training (AST) Fellowship in the hepatobiliary & transplant unit in Edinburgh between 2019-20.  She was appointed as a consultant hepatopancreatobiliary surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in 2021 and has a particular clinical interest in primary liver cancer. 

Rachel Guest undertook her doctoral research in Professor Stuart Forbes’ lab at the Centre for Regenerative Medicine, examining the molecular links between liver injury, regeneration and cancer.  This was funded by the Wellcome Trust through a Clinical Training Research Fellowship and led to publications on the cell of origin of cholangiocarcinoma and novel drivers of the disease.  She was awarded an Academic of Medical Sciences Clinical Lecturer’s award in 2017 to use whole exome sequencing to study the transition between the biliary disease Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis and cholangiocarcinoma.

Roles

  • Co-director BMedSci Surgical Sciences, University of Edinburgh (current)
  • Wellcome Trust panel for doctoral training programmes for healthcare professionals 2021
  • IHPBA Early Career Group Committee 2021
  • HPB Editorial Board member
  • Current Reviewer for British Journal of Cancer, BJS, HPB

Qualifications

  • Fellow of the Royal College Surgeons Edinburgh, FRCS 2019
  • PhD stem cell biology & regenerative medicine (University of Edinburgh) 2012
  • MB BS (hons) with distinction (Imperial College, London) 2006
  • BSc (Medical sciences with Neuroscience) (Imperial College, London) 2004

Awards

  • Syme medal, Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh 2015
  • Chiene medal, Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh 2013
  • Academy of Medical Sciences Spring meeting oral plenary session prize, Royal College of Physicians 2014
  • Finalist The Ian Wilmut Prize, University of Edinburgh 2014
  • EASL Young Investigator Award 2012
  • Participant of the 64th Lindau Nobel Laureate young scientists meeting for physiology & medicine 2014

Publications

A list of Rachel Guest’s publications can be found below. 

Rachel Guest Publication List (824.19 KB / PDF)

This article was published on