Paul Workman's Biography

Paul Workman, Chief Executive and President, Institute of Cancer Research, London

Professor Paul Workman is Chief Executive and President of The Institute of Cancer Research and Harrap Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Until January 2016 he was also Director of the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit at the ICR – the world’s largest non-profit cancer drug discovery group. Workman has been responsible for more than 20 molecularly targeted cancer drugs entering clinical trial. He is especially renowned for his innovative personal research in the discovery, chemical biology and molecular pharmacology of leading drugs acting on the molecular chaperone HSP90 (eg AUY922 licensed to Novartis) and PI3 kinase (eg pictilisib, GDC-0941; licensed to Genentech) and as the originator of the widely used Pharmacologic Audit Trail for biomarker-led drug development. Workman has won numerous rewards and fellowships including election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016.