Interview: An interview with Pharmacogenomics for the breast cancer special focus issue

Alan Ashworth speaks to Sarah Miller, Assistant Commissioning Editor Alan Ashworth joined the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR; London, UK) in 1986 as a postdoctoral scientist in the Section of Cell and Molecular Biology. He is now the Chief Executive of the ICR, a position he has held since January 2011. Prior to this, he was Director of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre (London, UK) at the ICR, where he continues to lead the Gene Function teams’ research efforts in breast cancer genetics, genomics and therapeutics. Together with Anthony Swerdlow (ICR), he cofounded and codirects the Breakthrough Generations Study, a large and comprehensive study aimed at unraveling the mysteries of breast cancer causation. In 1995, he played a key role in the team that discovered the BRCA2 risk gene. 10 years later, he was instrumental in discovering the potential of PARP inhibitors as synthetic lethal agents in BRCA-mutated cells. In 2008, Ashworth was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of his work in mammalian genetics and breast cancer susceptibility genes, and he continues to be passionate about developing personalized cancer treatments.