Professor Herbie Newell C.B.E.

I'm a Professor of Drug Development at the University of Sunderland and Emeritus Professor of Cancer Therapeutics at Newcastle University, England, UK. I was Director of Translational Research at Cancer Research UK from 2006 to 2009, and interim Executive Director of Clinical and Translational Research in 2007/8. I was the founding Scientific Director of the Northern Institute for Cancer Research at Newcastle University, and the Past-Chairman of the British Association for Cancer Research and of the Laboratory Research Division of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer.

I was involved in the development of the registered cytotoxic anticancer agents carboplatin (Paraplatin®) and ralitrexed (Tomudex®), and until my retirement from Newcastle in 2016, I was working on the discovery and development of molecularly-targeted anticancer drugs and associated predictive and pharmacological biomarkers. I was the lead pharmacologist on the team that discovered the first-in-class PARP inhibitor rucaparib (Rubraca®), for which the team were awarded the inaugural Cancer Research UK Translational Research Team prize. Rucaparib was given "Breakthrough Therapy" status by the US FDA in April 2015 for the treatment of hereditary ovarian cancer, and was licensed by the US FDA in December 2016. More recently, in March 2019, the US FDA approved the FGFr inhibitor erdafitinib (Balversa®) as a Breakthrough Therapy for bladder cancer, a drug that arose from a research programme initiated by myself with Astex Pharmaceuticals. I'm an author of over 230 scientific articles and was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology until 2016.

In addition to my academic work, I consulted extensively for both pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and speak widely at public meetings on behalf of Cancer Research UK. Until 2016, I chaired the Medical Research Council Development Pathway Funding Scheme and Confidence-in-Concept Committees, and the Cancer Research Technology Pioneer Fund Advisory Board. I've served on numerous international translational cancer research review panels, most recently in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Malaysia. In 2011, I was elected to the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and awarded a C.B.E. in 2019 for services to medical research and drug development.

Prior to the tragic early death of Professor Roz Anderson, I was acting as an advisor on the cystinosis project and agreed with Roz before her death that I would take over the role of Principle Investigator if needed.