Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)
The CDP Advisory Board (SAB) comprise:
Professor Herbie Newell (Chairman)
Professor of Cancer Therapeutics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and Executive Director of Clinical and Translational Research and Research Strategy, Cancer Research UK
David R (Herbie) Newell is Past Chairman of the British Association for Cancer Research (BACR), and the Laboratory Research Division and the Pharmacology and Molecular Mechanisms Group of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer.
Professor Newell is principal investigator on active grants with a value in excess of £3M, holds over 10 active patents relating to new anti-cancer compounds, and was involved in the development of the licensed anticancer drugs carboplatin (Paraplatin™) and ralitrexed (Tomudex™). His current research interests include the development of molecularly-targeted anticancer drugs, in particular kinase inhibitors, and the identification of drugs that modulate DNA repair as a mechanism for over coming resistance to cytotoxic drugs and radiotherapy. He is an author of over 180 scientific articles and Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology. Professor Newell is the Past Chairman of the Cancer Research UK New Agents Committee (NAC), and has served on the Cancer Research UK Programme Grants, Clinical and Translational Research, Translational Research in Clinical Trials and Phase I/II Clinical Trials Committees. He has acted as a consultant for international and national Pharma and Biotech companies including: Astex Technology, AstraZeneca, Aventis, Biotica, Eisai, Eli Lilly, Novartis, OSI Pharmaceuticals and Xenova.
Dr Alan Munro
Chairman of Cancer Research UK's New Agents Committee
Alan Munro graduated in Natural Sciences (Biochemistry) at Cambridge in 1960 where he stayed on for his PhD. in molecular biology. In January 1963 he was appointed to a University Post in the Department of Biochemistry. Following a year's sabbatical leave at the Salk Institute in California, his research interests have been in the field of Immunology working for three years in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (1968-1971), and then from 1971 at the Department of Pathology in Cambridge where he became ultimately Head of the Immunology Division of the Department.
In 1976-1977 he was the visiting Boerhave Professor in the Immuno-Haematology Department at the University of Leiden. In 1989, after a year's sabbatical leave working part of the time at Cell Tech Ltd, he left the University of Cambridge and was co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Cantab Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company based in Cambridge specialising in therapeutic vaccines and other modifiers of the immune response. While at Cantab he was responsible for all stages of trials using monoclonal antibodies and a therapeutic anti-cancer vaccine based on Vaccinia and HPV. In 1995 he left the Company and became the Master of Christ's College in Cambridge, a post he held for seven years.
During this time and since leaving the College he has been a consultant to venture capital funds on the commercial application of immunology, as well as being a Director of two biotech companies - Lorantis Ltd. and currently Paradigm Pharmaceuticals Ltd. He has also been a Trustee of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Institute at Babraham outside Cambridge, and of the Sanger Centre at Hinxton. He is currently Chairman of Paradigm Ltd. and a Director of Blackwell Publishing Ltd. He has recently been appointed Chairman of the Cancer Research UK New Agents Committee (NAC), and also serves on the Cancer Research UK Clinical and Translational Research Committee (CTRC).
Professor Jim Cassidy
Professor of Oncology, University of Glasgow and Beatson Oncology Centre
Jim Cassidy graduated in Medicine from Glasgow University in 1981. He then underwent Oncology training in Wales, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Part of this training was as a Cancer Research UK Senior Fellow in Pharmacology, during which time he undertook a degree in Clinical Pharmacology and published his MD. thesis on "Drug delivery systems in cancer".
He has a longstanding clinical interest in colorectal cancer and has been Principal Investigator of several large scale RCTs in this disease. He has published over 180 peer reviewed articles on aspects of colorectal cancer, molecular determinants of drug action and novel therapeutics. He serves on the editorial board of several high impact journals, and is Clinical Editor of the British Journal of Cancer (BJC).
Previously Professor of Oncology at Aberdeen University, his present post is at the Beatson Oncology Centre and laboratories in Glasgow. He is academic head of the Cancer Research UK Centre for Applied Pharmacology and Director of the Trials Unit. He is also Head of the West of Scotland Cancer Research Network, research convener for the University of Glasgow cancer division and head of Cancer Clinical Trials Unit for Scotland (CaCTUS) which is the only National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) accredited trials unit in Scotland. The trials unit performs about 90 clinical trials at any time with about nine of these being Phase 1 studies of novel agents. Most of these include aspects of translational science within them with samples being analysed through a dedicated Analytical Services Unit (which works to GLP standards).
Professor Adrian L Harris
Cancer Research UK Professor of Medical Oncology, University of Oxford
Director, Cancer Research UK Medical Oncology Unit, Churchill Hospital, Oxford and Director, Cancer Research UK Molecular Oncology Laboratories, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford
Adrian L Harris is the Cancer Research UK Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Oxford and directs the Cancer Research UK Molecular Oncology Laboratories at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine. He is Director of the Cancer Research UK Medical Oncology Unit at the Churchill Hospital, a Consultant Medical Oncologist and a Professorial Fellow of St Hugh's College Oxford. He is Head of the Cancer Research UK Oxford Cancer Centre and the Oxford NTRAC Centre. He is Editor-in-Chief of The British Journal of Cancer.
He trained in Medicine and Biochemistry at Liverpool University, did a DPhil. at Oxford University then trained at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Medical Oncology. He was appointed Professor of Clinical Oncology at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1982. Since 1988 he has been the Professor of Medical Oncology at Oxford University.
His major laboratory interests involve the role of hypoxia in tumour biology and angiogenesis; and new drug development. He is investigating the roles of hypoxia inducible factor 1 and 2 and Notch signalling in angiogenesis and hypoxia induced cell death. He specialises in breast cancer and melanoma and has previously treated a wide range of tumour types including urological cancers, lung cancer, gynaecological cancers and haematological malignancy. He has published over 700 scientific papers and reviews.
In the clinical department over 20 Phase I and II trials are run, and current trials include new drugs blocking VEGF, ras and other antiangiogenic approaches. Specific emphasis is on pharmacodynamic endpoints to prove that the specific target is blocked within the tumour, as an endpoint in the Phase I and II trials. With four other Consultants, also partly funded by Cancer Research UK, the Unit runs an extensive programme covering all the common cancers. Specific clinical research interests for the Unit include, inhibition of DNA repair, blockade of signal transduction and immunotherapy.
