Richard Gilbertson

Professor Richard James Gilbertson FMedSci is a paediatric oncology clinician scientist and a Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge.^[1] He is the Li Ka Shing Chair of Oncology,^[2] and Director of the CRUK Cambridge Major Centre^[3] and the Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence.^[4]

Education[]

Gilbertson attended Medical School at Newcastle University,^[5] graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree in 1992.^[6] He went on to complete his PhD in 1998.^[7]

Career and research[]

Gilbertson's research focuses on understanding the link between normal development and the origins of cancer, with a particular focus on children’s brain tumours.^[8] He has shown that the four different subgroups of medulloblastoma, namely WNT, SHH, Group 3, and Group 4, begin from different cells in the brain and have different mutations in their DNA.^[9][10] His work has also shown that a combination of stem cell mutagenesis and extrinsic factors that enhance the proliferation of these cell populations ultimately determines organ cancer risk.^[11][12]

In 2000, Gilbertson joined the St Jude Children's Research Hospital.^[13] There, he became the founding director of the Molecular Clinical Trials Core and the co-leader of the Neurobiology and Brain Tumor Program.^[14] In 2011, he was named executive vice president of St. Jude and director of its Comprehensive Cancer Centre.^[15][16][17]

In 2015, he returned to the UK as the Li Ka Shing Chair of Oncology, head of the Department of Oncology, senior group leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge and Director of the CRUK Cambridge Major Centre.^[18]

Awards and honours[]

• International Society of Pediatric Oncology Schweisguth Prize, 1998^[19]
• Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health SPARKS Young Investigator of the Year, 2000^[20]
• British Paediatric Neurology Association Ronnie McKeith Prize, 2002^[21]
• Brain Tumor Society Sydney Schlobohm Leadership Chair of Research, 2006^[22][23]
• Malia’s Cord Foundation Harold C. Schott Research Chair, 2008^[24]
• American Association of Neurological Surgeons Hunt-Wilson Lectureship, 2011^[25]
• Elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, 2013^[26]
• Member, Faculty of 1000
• Elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 2017^[27]
• Elected Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences 2017
• Elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians 2020

References[]