Dr Johann de Bono
Dr de Bono directs the clinical drug development Phase I trials program at the Royal Marsden Hospital with a particular interest in the pharmacokinetic - pharmacodynamic evaluation of targeted therapeutics and pharmacogenetics.
He graduated in medicine with distinctions from the University of Glasgow in Scotland in 1989, and trained in internal medicine, graduating as a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) in 1992. He was then awarded a four-year Cancer Research UK Clinical Research Scholarship, which allowed him to pursue a PhD studying the regulation of epithelial stem cell proliferation at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow. Prior to commencing his PhD he spent 4 months serving as a physician running a 176-bed hospital in rural East Africa.
After completing his PhD he worked at the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow where his interest in developing non-toxic scientifically targeted anticancer drugs was sparked. He was awarded a Masters degree in oncology with distinction in 1999 by Glasgow University. The Royal College of Physicians then awarded him a travelling scholarship, which allowed him to pursue further research in 2000 on the statistical issues that pertain to clinical trials of targeted drugs, at the SWOG statistical headquarters at the Fred Hutton Cancer Centre in Seattle, USA. Following this, he pursued further research, developing new anticancer drugs in the USA at the Institute for Drug Development in San Antonio and the University of Texas Health Science Centre at San Antonio. Dr de Bono worked in this institution between 2000 and 2003, initially as a Senior Fellow and then as a Faculty Member. He was elected FRCP in 2003.
He has received many awards during his career including the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Young Investigator Award, an ASCO merit award, a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Clinician-Scientist Faculty Award and Berlex Oncology Foundation Awards. He has been awarded research grants from the Cancer Research Campaign, the Medical Research Council, the US National Institute of Health, the American Association of Cancer Research, the Federation of European Cancer Societies, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation.
Dr de Bono has been involved in the development of over 50 novel agents over the last 5-years including ErbB, mTOR, farnesyltransferase, IGF-1R and histone deacetylase modulating drugs. He is currently running over 20 early clinical trials.
