Professor Paul Workman is a leading cancer research scientist known for pioneering many innovative cancer drugs and personalised medicines targeted at specific molecular abnormalities, a strategy he terms ‘drugging the cancer genome’. He introduced the ‘Pharmacological Audit Trail’, a method employing biomarkers for informed drug development decisions. His work has significantly contributed to understanding cancer-causing proteins, drug resistance mechanisms, and developing inhibitors for protein and lipid kinases, such as AKT and PI3 kinases, and also molecular chaperones like Hsp90.
Paul has been instrumental in cancer drug discovery both in academia and the industry over the last 49 years, leading teams based on the non-profit, team science model. Notably, he directed the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London from 1997 to 2016, where he was pivotal in the discovery of 20 drug candidates, 12 of which entered clinical trials, including capivasertib which was approved for breast cancer. From 2014-21, Paul also served as Chief Executive and President of ICR. In addition, Paul was a Co-Founder of Chroma Therapeutics and Piramed Pharma, and he is Science Partner at Nextech Invest. He has won numerous awards and is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
