Pankhurst directs the UCL Healthcare Biomagnetics Laboratory, developing magnetic nanoparticles and instrumentation for clinical use: AC-susceptometry-based sentinel-lymph-node localization for breast cancer surgical staging (commercialized as Endomag), magnetic particle imaging, and magnetic hyperthermia therapy. He is a participant in the Q-BIOMED quantum-biomedical-sensing hub, connecting magnetic biosensing with the hub's broader quantum-diagnostics translation effort.