Ruth Plummer, MD PhD

Dr. Ruth Plummer is Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine, Newcastle University and an honorary consultant medical oncologist in Newcastle Hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust.  Dr. Plummer is Director of the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre within the Northern Centre for Cancer Care. She leads the Newcastle Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and also the CRUK Newcastle Cancer Centre.

She runs one of the most active Phase I clinical trial units in the UK.  In addition, her NHS clinical practice involves treating skin cancer, with a portfolio of trials across all phases of drug development.   Nationally, Dr. Plummer chairs the MRC Experimental Medicine Panel and sits as a member of Cancer Research UK’s Research Careers Committee and until recently Clinical Research Committee.  She is also a member of the MRC Precision Medicine Group and the NIHR EME Committee. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2018 for her work developing PARP inhibitors as novel cancer treatments, in 2021 she was awarded the ESMO-TAT Lifetime Achievement award for her work in early phase trials and in 2022 an MBE for Services to Medicine.