Background
Sir Steve Jackson FRS, FMedSci is the University of Cambridge Frederick James Quick Professor of Biology. He is Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and Associate Group Leader at the Gurdon Institute.
Steve is originally from Nottingham in the English Midlands. He obtained his first degree from Leeds University and then did his PhD research with Jean Beggs on yeast mRNA splicing, first at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London and then in the Department of Molecular Biology at Edinburgh University.
After doing post-doctoral research with Robert Tjian at Berkeley, California, where he developed an interest in the regulation of transcription, Steve returned to the UK in 1991 as a Junior Group Leader at the then Wellcome-CRC Institute (now the Gurdon Institute). Here, he continued his research into transcription by eukaryotic RNA polymerases II and III and expanded this work to include the transcriptional apparatus of Archaea.
Through identifying and characterising the functions of the DNA-dependent protein kinase, Steve was led into the field of DNA repair and DNA-damage signalling; and for more than 25 years, this has been the major focus of his academic group.
Research
Steve's pioneering research has provided us with many of the key principles by which cells respond to and repair DNA damage. He identified many DNA-damage-response (DDR) proteins, established how they function and how they are in many cases strongly evolutionarily conserved, and helped define how their dysfunction yields cancer and other diseases. He has received various national and international prizes, and his publications have been cited extensively.
In 1997, through recognizing that many DDR proteins represent attractive drug targets, Steve founded and scientifically led the company KuDOS Pharmaceuticals (he was part-time KuDOS Chief Scientific Officer from 1997 to 2009), which was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2006.
Several KuDOS compounds are now in clinical trials, the most advanced being the PARP inhibitor Olaparib/ Lynparza, which Steve and colleagues showed exhibits striking cytotoxicity towards cancer cells mutated in BRCA1 or BRCA2. Ensuing clinical studies with olaparib established a new cancer therapy paradigm, wherein a cancer cell’s genetic deficiency (such as loss of BRCA1 or BRCA2 function) is exploited pharmacologically through a mechanism termed “synthetic-lethality”, resulting in cancer cell killing with only mild effects on the patient’s normal cells. Olaparib/Lynparza has now been approved for the treatment of ovarian, breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers. It has been administered to over 30,000 patients worldwide and is the world’s first marketed DNA-repair enzyme inhibitor, the first drug to harness the synthetic-lethality principle and the first anti-cancer medicine targeted to patients based on them having an inherited predisposition.
Mission Therapeutics
In 2010, Steve co-founded the company Mission Therapeutics to exploit new therapeutic opportunities, in oncology and several other disease areas, arising from his work on protein ubiquitylation and deubiquitylation. He currently serves as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board.
Adrestia Therapeutics
Adrestia Therapeutics, co-founded by Steve in 2018, is using the concept of synthetic viability to identify drug targets for inherited rare diseases. Steve is currently Adrestia’s Chief Scientific Officer (part-time). Adrestia was recently acquired by Insmed, Inc., and is now serving as a UK-based innovation hub for Insmed.
Awards & Achievements
Steve has received several prizes including, Eppendorf European Young Investigator of the Year (1995), the Tenovus Medal (1997), the Biochemical Society Colworth Medal (1997), and the Anthony Dipple Carcinogenesis Young Investigator Award (2002). More recently, in recognition of his achievements, he has received the Biochemical Society GlaxoSmithKline Award (2008), the BBSRC Innovator of the Year Award (2009) the Royal Society Buchanan Medal (2011), the Gagna A. & Ch. Van Heck prize (2015), the King Faisal International Prize for Science (2016), and the Heineken Prize for Science by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science (2016) for his "fundamental research into DNA repair in human cells and for the successful application of knowledge of that process in the development of new cancer drugs". He was awarded the UK GSN Medal (2017), and in 2019 was awarded the Fondation ARC Léopold Griffuel Award in Translational and Clinical Research, for his work on DNA damage repair and his role in the development of medicines such as PARP1 and 2 inhibitors, currently used for cancer treatment.
The impact of his work on national prosperity was recognised by Steve being awarded the Royal Society Mullard Award in 2020. More recently, Steve was awarded the 2022 Johann Anton Merck Award, only the third recipient of this prestigious award, which is given for outstanding scientific preclinical research accomplishments in the areas of Merck Healthcare‘s strategic focus. And in the same year, his longstanding academic entrepreneurship and outstanding contributions that have enhanced the field of oncology were recognised by Cancer Research UK, with him being awarded Cancer Research Horizon’s Entrepreneurship Recognition Award. He is an elected member of several professional societies and organisations, including the European Molecular Biology Organization (1997), the Academy of Medical Sciences (2001) and the Fellowship of the Royal Society (2008).
Steve has been awarded a knighthood in the King’s first Birthday Honours List (June 16 2023). He was recommended for the honour of Knight Bachelor for his services to innovation and research.