Professor Paul Workman, OBE FRS, is a world-renowned scientist and a leading figure in cancer research and drug discovery. He is currently the Harrap Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London, where he previously served as Chief Executive and President from 2014 to 2021. For almost two decades (1997-2016) he built and directed the ICR’s CRUK Cancer Therapeutics Unit, now the Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery (CCDD) – a large and successful centre for the discovery of innovative molecular cancer therapeutics. Throughout his career, which spans academia, large Pharma (AstraZeneca) and biotech, Workman has promoted collaborative team science and been a pioneer in ‘precision medicine,’ moving away from ‘one-size-fits- all’ cytotoxic chemotherapy towards personalized, molecularly-targeted therapies. He is probably best known for the discovery of drugs inhibiting oncogenic protein and lipid kinases, the molecular chaperone HSP90 and the stress response-regulating transcription factor HSF1. He is also celebrated for originating the ‘Pharmacological Audit Trail,’ a rigorous, biomarker-driven framework used globally to provide a rational  guide to evidence-based decision-making in drug discovery and clinical development – incorporating pharmacodynamic biomarkers to ensure that drugs hit their intended targets to the required extent, and underpinning the Project Optimus regulatory initiative, promoting selection of the optimal biological dose.

Professor Workman’s impact on the pharmaceutical landscape is extensive, having overseen the discovery of numerous clinical drug candidates. Notable successes his teams played an instrumental role in include the approved AKT inhibitor capivasertib, the PI3K inhibitor pictilisib, the HSP90 inhibitor luminespib, and earlier leadership of research to discover the approved EGFR inhibitor gefitinib. Beyond his academic leadership, Workman is a successful entrepreneur, co-founding biotech companies such as Piramed Pharma (acquired by Roche) and Chroma Therapeutics (assets acquired by CTI BioPharma) to accelerate the transition of lab discoveries into life-saving treatments.

In recognition of his five decades of service to the field, Professor Workman was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2026 UK New Year Honours. Among numerous honours and awards, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Medical Sciences (the UK’s national academies of science and medicine, respectively) and has also been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Association for Cancer Research Academy (AACR). Today, he continues to drive innovation in the CCDD and as Co-Director of the CRUK Children’s Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence hosted at ICR and Cambridge University, focusing on finding new solutions for some of the most challenging forms of the disease and hard-to-drug targets. Professor Workman also directs the Chemical Probes Portal, an open-access resource that helps scientists worldwide in the selection and best practice use of the most reliable chemical tools for biomedical research.

Dr. Chan is the President’s Chair of Engineering and Dean of Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore   He is a Professor in the School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Biotechnology.  He received his B.S. degree from the University of Illinois in 1996, Ph.D. from Indiana University in 2001, and post-doctoral training at the University of California (San Diego).  He was faculty at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto before moving to NTU Singapore.  His lab develops nanotechnology for diagnosing and treating cancer and infectious diseases. Some of his awards include NSERC E. W. R. Memorial Steacie Fellowship, Kabiller Young Investigator Award in Nanomedicine (Northwestern University), Rank Prize Fund award in Optoelectronics (England), and Dennis Gabor Award (Hungary).  He is currently an Executive Editor of ACS Nano. 

Dmitriy Zamarin MD PhD is Professor of Oncology, Section Head of Gynecologic Medical Oncology, and co-director of Center of Excellence for Gynecologic Cancers at the Tisch Cancer Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Zamarin obtained his MD and PhD degrees from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He completed residency in Internal Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital and fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He spent a decade as a faculty and Translational Research Director in Gynecologic Medical Oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center before transitioning to his current role in September of 2023.

Dr. Zamarin has served as a principal investigator and a translational chair on multiple institutional and cooperative group clinical trials exploring novel immunotherapy combinations in gynecologic cancers and other solid tumors and serves as the translational research co-chair on the NRG Oncology Cervical Cancer committee. In the laboratory, his research is focused on understanding of the mechanisms by which gynecologic cancers are recognized by the immune system and on identification of biomarkers predictive of response and resistance to immunotherapy. His laboratory uses mouse models to explore the mechanisms of tumor-immune system interactions and to develop novel therapeutics, with particular focus on oncolytic viruses, vaccines, and targeted therapies. Dr. Zamarin has received awards and funding from multiple organizations including Damon Runyon Foundation, Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, Department of Defense, and the National Cancer Institute and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.