The Best of the AACR Journals Collection: Author Profiles

Andrew W. Roberts 

Title & Affiliation:
Professor, Metcalf Chair of Leukaemia Research, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Clinical Haematology Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Centre for Cancer Research, The University of Melbourne, and Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia.

Most-cited Article:
Acquisition of the Recurrent Gly101Val Mutation in BCL2 Confers Resistance to Venetoclax in Patients with Progressive Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Q: What is your primary area of study/research?
A: Novel therapies for hematological malignancies.

Q: What influenced your decision to embark on a research career?
A: Early in my clinical training, I was struck by the obvious inadequacies of DNA-damaging chemotherapy as curative treatment for many blood cancer patients and realized that we had to know more about the biology of the diseases to do better.

Q; What excites you most about your research area?
A: The fact that we are now well past just some anecdotes about rendering previously incurable cancers curable with targeted therapies – this is now reality (imatinib, arsenic, rituximab, immunotherapy, etc.), and there is so much more we can achieve.

Q: What are your hobbies or passions outside of work?
A: Family time.