World-renowned DNA expert heads University of Bradford cancer research institute
Institute develops medicines ‘from concept to clinic’ to tackle the ‘greatest challenges facing human health’
A renowned expert on DNA has been appointed as the new Director of the University of Bradford’s Institute of Cancer Therapeutics (ICT) from August 3.
Professor Sherif El-Khamisy’s research is focused on how DNA is repaired after damage, a process that is critical to preventing both cancer and neural degeneration, both of which are health problems associated with an ageing population.
Prof El-Khamisy is a qualified pharmacist and is currently the Director of Research and Innovation in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Sheffield, overseeing a research budget of over £21m and managing large teams of research staff.
In addition to his Director role, Prof El-Khamisy is the co-founder and Deputy Director of the newly launched Healthy Life Span Institute in Sheffield. He is a highly regarded scientist and has recently attracted over £5m in research funding from industry and major funding bodies including a prestigious Wellcome Trust Investigator Award.
He is also holder of a distinguished Lister Research Fellowship form the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, which funds biomedical research.
He publishes widely in high ranking international journals including Nature, Cell, Science Advances, Nature Neuroscience and Nature Genetics.
Professor Alastair Goldman, Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, said, “We are so excited that Sherif will join us from Sheffield. He has had an enormous impact on research there and we really look forward to him supporting our cancer researchers, in particular, developing their research strategy. ICT is one of the research jewels at Bradford and we look forward to the institute increasing its impact in medical research, under Shehttps://www.bradford.ac.uk/external/rif’s leadership, in the coming years.”
Hadar Zaman, Head of the School of Pharmacy & Medical Sciences, said: “I am delighted that we have managed to attract a high quality and successful researcher like Sherif into the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences. I am really excited and looking forward to enhancing and building on our research strengths in cancer where his expertise is globally recognised. Sherif has a real passion in developing the next generation of future cancer scientists at Bradford, which is going to be vital if we are going to beat cancer.”
Professor Sherif El-Khamisy added: “The ICT is a flagship institute housing world class experts who work to tackle the greatest challenges facing human health and I am honoured by the new role and looking forward to working closely with colleagues in the ICT, school of life sciences and in Bradford more broadly.”
Additional information
The ICT houses a number of multidisciplinary research groups working together to research, develop and commercialise new treatments. The work spans fundamental discovery science to identify, refine and validate new targets, synthetic and medicinal chemistry, pre-clinical pharmacology, molecular biology, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (how the body interacts with a drug), drug formulation and proteomics (the large-scale study of proteins). It is one of only a few centres in the UK with the research tools and expertise in-house to progress medicines and biomarkers (used to measure the severity of a disease) from concept to clinic.