Robert Hawkins's Biography

Robert Hawkins, Professor, University of Manchester

After medical school at Cambridge University and University College London he trained in Medical Oncology at the Royal Marsden hospital and Addenbrookes hospital, Cambridge. He also obtained a PhD in antibody engineering at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge. After completing his training in 1995 he became Professor of Oncology at the University of Bristol before moving to his current post in 1998. His clinical interests are in renal / adrenal cancers with a particular focus on immunotherapy as a treatment of cancer. He leads the Christie renal oncology service which sees over 250 new renal cancer patients a year and undertakes a large number of clinical trials. Professor Hawkins also undertakes phase I/II trials of immune and other biological therapies in a wider range of cancers. This links with the focus of his laboratory research which is on gene/immunotherapy - he has major grants from the EU, Cancer Research UK and the Kay Kendall Leukaemia Research Fund. In the field of adoptive cellular therapy Professor Hawkins leads the EU “ATTACK” programme (www.attack-cancer.org) which links leading European researchers in the engineered T cell field and the EU “ATTRACT” project which provides training for researchers in the field of adoptive cellular therapy for cancer. He has established a GMP cellular therapy unit in Manchester which currently supports trials/treatments of cellular therapy for B-cell malignancies and melanoma. He has published widely on clinical / translational cancer research and is on a number of national/international committees related to cancer research / translational research.