Name:
Dr Ben O’Leary
Job Title:
Group Leader: Evolution and Translational Genomics
Honorary Consultant in Clinical Oncology
Organisation / Company:
The Royal Marsden Hospital
Biography:
Ben leads the Evolution & Translational Genomics Group at The Institute of Cancer Research and is an Honorary Consultant in Clinical Oncology at The Royal Marsden Hospital. Ben’s research is focused on understanding the evolution of resistance to cancer therapies in head and neck cancers, including the use of liquid biopsies. He leads several translational studies and clinical trials at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden.
Ben initially completed a degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cambridge before training in medicine at King’s College London. After junior medical training in London he was awarded an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Clinical Oncology in 2012 at The Royal Marsden Hospital, The Royal Sussex Hospital, and The Institute of Cancer Research.
Ben then undertook a Medical Research Council Clinical Research Training Fellowship in Professor Nick Turner‘s Molecular Oncology lab at The Institute of Cancer Research in 2015, working on circulating tumour DNA and the evolution of resistance to CDK4/6 inhibitors. Subsequently, he was appointed as an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in 2019, with a visiting position in Peter Van Loo’s Group at The Crick in London, then MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, working on cancer evolution. He was appointed as Clinician Scientist at The Institute for Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden Hospital in 2022. In 2024, Ben received a Wellcome Discovery Research Early Career Fellowship to support his research into the evolution of treatment resistance in head and neck cancer.