Rebecca Fitzgerald completed her medical degree at the University of Cambridge, followed by doctoral research at Stanford University, and then postdoctoral research alongside specialist training in gastroenterology at Barts and the London Hospitals. She started her own independent group the MRC Cancer Unit in 2001 with an honorary gastroenterology consultant position at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. In 2014, she was elected to chair in cancer prevention, and in 2022 inaugural director of the department of oncology at the Early Cancer Institute, University of Cambridge.