Johann De Bono

Professor Johann de Bono is Regius Professor of Cancer Research and a Professor in Experimental Cancer Medicine at The Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden. He is also the Director of The Drug Development Unit, overseeing the conduct of Phase I trials.

Additionally he leads the Prostate Cancer Targeted Therapy Clinical Trials Team and the Cancer Biomarkers Laboratory Team.

He graduated from the University of Glasgow medical school in 1989, graduating as a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) in 1992. He trained in medical oncology, and was awarded an MSc (Cancer Sciences) from Glasgow University.

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow then awarded him a travelling scholarship that allowed him to pursue further research on the challenges of clinical trial design at the SWOG statistical headquarters at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Centre in Seattle, USA in 1999. Between 2000 and 2003 he then pursued further research developing novel anti-cancer drugs at the Institute for Drug Development in San Antonio.

Professor de Bono received the prestigious ESMO Award in 2012 and was part of the ICR/RMH team awarded the AACR Team Science Award. In 2015 he was named among the “World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds”, and in 2016 named as Regius Professor of Cancer Research, a rare award bestowed by the Sovereign by Royal Warrant to recognise exceptionally high-quality research at an Institution.

Professor de Bono has been involved in the development of many novel agents, many now approved drugs, for example abiraterone, olaparib and afatinib. He has served as chief investigator of multiple drugs that have changed the standard of care for prostate cancer patients including abiraterone, cabazitaxel and enzalutamide.

He has led on the study of circulating tumour cells, whole blood expression profiling and plasma DNA in metastatic prostate cancer patients and pioneered the concept of patient molecular stratification in early clinical trials in the Pharmacological Audit Trail.