Recipient: Aswin George Abraham

About the Award: The ESTRO – Accuray Award is given to a radiotherapy professional for research in the field of ‘High Precision Radiotherapy’. Awardees may be qualified in the field of Clinical Radiotherapy, Radiation Physics, Radiation Technology or Radiobiology. The work presented is completed as an individual piece of research or as a thesis.

Dr Aswin George Abraham is a University of Oxford Clarendon Scholar and Cancer Research UK DPhil candidate at Dr Eric O’Neill’s  Cell and Molecular Signalling group at the Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology, Oxford. The group’s focus is to identify signalling pathways that contribute to therapeutic resistance of cancer cells and to use this knowledge to improve treatment strategies and patient response. Dr Abraham’s primary area of work has been in clarifying the mechanistic process behind treatment resistance in p53 mutant tumours and identifying potential targeting strategies.

Dr Abraham completed his medical training in Mangalore, India, and his MSc in Cancer Studies at the UCL Cancer Institute, London, where he worked with Prof. Barbara Pedley on vascular disrupting agents in cancer therapy.  Following his time in London, he returned to his hometown in Kerala for one year, working as a resident in clinical oncology at a tertiary care referral centre which caters to a large population of South India.

Since joining the O’Neill group, he has been the recipient of an NCRI award and the Association for Radiation Research (ARR) Young Investigator award. Dr Abraham’s work with p53 mutant tumours has identified interesting avenues for further research in different malignancies. He is currently focusing on some of these areas and developing evidence-based strategies for translation into clinical studies during the latter stage of his time in Oxford.