UCL: UCL Professor recognised for significant contribution to cancer research
Professor Charles Swanton (UCL Cancer Institute) has been awarded the prestigious Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center’s 2021 Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research.
The prize, named in honour of MSK’s past President Emeritus, the late Paul Marks, recognises a new generation of leaders in cancer research who are making significant contributions to the understanding of cancer or are improving the treatment of the disease through basic or clinical research.
A committee of prominent members of the cancer research community selected three winners, all under the age of 50. They will present their work at a series of lectures hosted by MSK in March 2022.
Professor Charles Swanton is Chair of Personalised Medicine at UCL, group leader at the UCL Cancer Institute and the Francis Crick Institute, chief clinician at Cancer Research UK and consultant at University College London Hospitals NHS Trust.
He said: “It’s an honour to receive this recognition alongside two talented, inspiring researchers. My laboratory scientists, clinicians, collaborators and support from UCL, the Crick, and CRUK have made this work possible and I’m really excited to continue our work to understand more about how cancer evolves and find ways to block the path of tumours before they grow, spread and develop drug resistance.”
Commenting Professor Tariq Enver, Director of the UCL Cancer Institute and lead for the CRUK City of London Centre, said: “I am delighted Charlie is being recognised for his seminal work on intra tumour heterogeneity and tumour evolution.
“Understanding these processes is essential to developing better treatments for cancer patients, as they are both key determinants of therapy resistance.”
Professor Swanton receives the prize alongside Ralph J DeBerardinis, Professor at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern and investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Sun Hur, Oscar M Schloss Professor at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital and investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.