UCLH consultant recognised for significant contribution to cancer research

UCLH and UCL clinician scientist Professor Charles Swanton 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.

As well as being a consultant at UCLH, Professor 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.

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.”

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.