Professor Mariam Jamal-Hanjani has been officially appointed as the new Chief Clinician at Cancer Research UK, stepping into a prominent leadership role designed to steer the charity’s clinical research strategy and spearhead national efforts to improve cancer treatment and patient care.
Bringing an extensive background in translational research, Professor Jamal-Hanjani is widely recognized for her pioneering work in the fields of cancer genomics and metastasis. Alongside her new responsibilities with the charity, she serves as a Professor of Cancer Genomics and Metastasis at University College London (UCL), where she has dedicated her career to understanding the complex biological mechanisms that govern how cancer evolves, spreads throughout the body, and ultimately develops resistance to conventional medical therapies.
Her academic and clinical contributions include leading major, high-profile studies investigating lung cancer, a disease that continues to present significant challenges to oncologists worldwide. Through her research, Professor Jamal-Hanjani and her teams have helped the global scientific community gain deeper insights into how tumours change and mutate over extended periods. Crucially, this work sheds light on why certain cancers become increasingly difficult to treat as they progress. By decoding these evolutionary pathways, her research is helping to pave the way for the development of more precise, targeted treatments that hold the potential to deliver vastly improved survival rates and long-term outcomes for patients facing complex cancer diagnoses.
The leadership transition at Cancer Research UK has drawn high praise from across the organization. Michelle Mitchell, the Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, welcomed Professor Jamal-Hanjani to the role, emphasizing the profound expertise she brings to the charity’s executive and scientific leadership teams.
Reflecting on the appointment, Michelle Mitchell noted that Professor Jamal-Hanjani possesses a deep, hands-on understanding of how to lead high-performing research teams capable of generating radical new insights. She highlighted that these teams are instrumental in uncovering how cancer dynamically changes as it grows, spreads within the body, resists therapeutic interventions, and occasionally returns after periods of remission.
Expressing her enthusiasm for the new position, Professor Jamal-Hanjani shared her perspective on joining the nation’s leading cancer charity. She remarked that Cancer Research UK holds an extraordinary, proven track record of translating complex laboratory discoveries into tangible, real-world benefits for patients in clinics and hospitals. She added that the opportunity to help shape that vital mission is a responsibility she feels deeply privileged to take on.
Furthermore, Professor Jamal-Hanjani emphasized her core ambition to accelerate the translation of cutting-edge scientific research into better, more accessible cancer outcomes. In discussing the structural advantages available within the United Kingdom, she specifically highlighted the National Health Service (NHS) as a major, invaluable asset. She noted that the NHS plays a critical role in bridging the gap between groundbreaking scientific discoveries and the everyday care delivered to patients across the country.
Professor Jamal-Hanjani officially assumed her new role as Chief Clinician in October 2026. In taking on the position, she succeeds Professor Charles Swanton, a distinguished oncologist and researcher who successfully held the role since 2017, guiding the charity through significant periods of clinical advancement and scientific discovery.