Associate Professor Kevin Spring holds an academic position with the School of Medicine, (Medical Oncology) at Western Sydney University as well as an NSW Health (Concord Institute of Academic Surgery) position.  He is also a Conjoint Associate Professor at UNSW and Group Leader at the Ingham Institute. His main research interest spans colorectal cancer and the clinical utility of liquid biopsy for cancer management to improve patient outcomes.

Kevin received his PhD in 1997 from the University of Queensland (under the mentorship of Prof John Mattick). He then moved to QIMR and made significant contributions in the field of DNA damage. He also made substantial contributions toward defining the serrated neoplasia pathway in colorectal cancer, establishing BRAF mutation and methylation (CIMP) as key molecular features and that sessile serrated adenomas were the precursors of MSI-H cancers.

Since 2013, at WSU and the Ingham Institute (Sydney) he developed a new area of interest on the clinical utility of blood-based liquid biopsies involving circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and circulating nucleic acids (ctNAs) for patient stratification, guidance of treatment and real-time monitoring of treatment response. He also established the Thomas Ashworth CTC & Liquid Biopsy Symposium in 2014 and is its national convenor. The Symposium is considered the peak liquid biopsy conference in Australia.  He is currently developing the Australasian Liquid Biopsy Society (ALBA) with the vision that it will be the representative organization for Liquid Biopsy in the Asia Pacific region.

His track record includes successful NHMRC and CCQ/CCNSW grants, with publications in high impact journals such as Nature, Gastroenterology, GUT, Nature Genetics, PNAS (over 80 publications, H-index = 39, i10-index = 60, and >7600 citations). In addition, he has interests in cancer biobanking and clinical data management.