Gregory Hannon

Career and research Hannon was known for his contributions to small RNA biology, cancer biology, and mammalian genomics. He had a role in the discovery of oncogenes, beginning with work that led to the identification of CDK inhibitors and their links to cancer. His laboratory also discovered the piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway and linked this to transposon repression and the protection of germ cell genomes. award to unite the IMAXT team - a team of researchers from Switzerland, Ireland, Canada, the USA and the UK, with far ranging expertise from cancer biology and pathology to astronomy and even VR video game design. The team's aim is to create an interactive 3D map of cancer, which could be explored in virtual reality. The programme could transform the way researchers study cancer by providing unprecedented insight into how individual cells are arranged and how they interact to allow the tumour to grow.

In 2018, it was announced Hannon would guide the Functional Genomics Centre, a collaboration between Cancer Research UK and AstraZeneca. The centre, housed inside the Milner Therapeutics Institute, aims to act as a hub for genetic screens, cancer models, CRISPR tool design, and computational approaches to big data to understand genetic changes in cancer development and identify potential drug targets.

Awards and honours

Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, 1997 Rita Allen Scholar, 2000 US Army Breast Cancer Research Programme Innovator Award, 2002 AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research, 2005 National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology, 2007 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, 2007 National Academy of Sciences Member, 2012 Royal Society Wolfson Professorship, 2015 EMBO member, 2018 The Royal Society Fellow, 2018 Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy, 2020