Prof. Steve
Jackson

Steve Jackson FRS, FMedSci is University of Cambridge and Cancer Research UK Professor
of Biology, and Head of Cancer Research UK Laboratories at the Gurdon Institute. His
research (publication h-index 125, citations >70,000; Google Scholar) has identified key
principles by which cells respond to and repair DNA damage, and helped define how their
dysfunction yields cancer and other age-related diseases. Steve is a fellow of the Royal
Society and has received many prizes, including the 2015 Gagna and van Heck Prize for
Medicine, the 2016 King Faisal International Prize for Science, the 2016 AH. Heineken Prize
for Medicine.

To translate his academic work towards patient benefit, in 1997 Steve founded the drug-
discovery company KuDOS Pharmaceuticals Ltd., then served as its part-time Chief
Scientific Officer (CSO) until its acquisition by AstraZeneca. Several KuDOS-derived drugs
are in clinical trials, with the most advanced, the PARP inhibitor olaparib/Lynparza TM , being a
marketed drug for ovarian and breast cancers worldwide. In 2010, Steve founded Mission
Therapeutics Ltd. (Babraham, Cambridge) to exploit advances in protein ubiquitylation and
deubiquitylation to derive new medicines, and until recently served as its part-time CSO.
Steve’s science also underpinned the foundation of Carrick Therapeutics Ltd., for which he
now serves as a scientific advisor. Steve is a Science Partner of Ahren Innovation Capital,
and serves as part-time Chief Executive Officer for Adrestia Therapeutics Ltd., a company
that he co-founded in 2018. Steve’s academic laboratory is currently further defining
mechanisms of DNA repair and associated processes, with a view to delivering new
biological insights and identifying therapeutic opportunities for cancer and various other
diseases.