Ruth Plummer is Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine, Newcastle University and an honorary consultant medical oncologist in Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She directs the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre and leads the Newcastle Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and CRUK Newcastle Cancer Centre. The focus of her research is first in human clinical trials, running a busy early phase trials practice which includes studies with novel small molecules, antibodies, immunotherapies and cellular therapies. She has taken multiple agents targeting DNA repair into the clinic, including the first-in-class PARP and ATR inhibtors. Her NHS practice is in skin cancer, treating all types of melanoma with systemic therapies.
Nationally she sits on grant funding committees for CRUK and the MRC and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2018 for her work developing PARP inhibitors as novel cancer treatments for patients. She was awarded an MBE in the 2022 Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours for Services to Medicine.