Prof. Hani Gabra BSc(Hons) MB ChB MSc PhD MRCP FRCPE FRCP

Prof. Hani Gabra is Consultant Medical Oncologist and Trust Lead Cancer Clinician at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, a position he has held since July 2021, specializing in gynaecological medical oncology. Concurrently, he holds the position of Professor Emeritus in Medical Oncology at Imperial College London (since August 2020) and Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (November 2003 to November 2024). He is Founder, Board Member, and Chief Scientific Officer of Papyrus Therapeutics Inc. (West Chester, PA, USA), an emerging biopharma company developing novel tumor suppressor-based therapies, a position he has held since July 2021. He has served as Medical Advisor at Sciensus on a freelance basis since March 2024. He holds a Visiting Professorship at Guangxi Medical University in Nanning, China (since December 2012) and previously held an Adjunct Professorship in Personalized Cancer Medicine at the University of Bergen, Centre for Cancer Biomarkers (CCBIO), from February 2016 to June 2023.

Prof. Gabra’s primary research focus is the molecular biology of ovarian cancer, with particular depth in tumor suppressor gene function — specifically the roles of OPCML in regulating networks of receptor tyrosine kinases and WWOX in regulating taxane sensitivity — and in the molecular basis of clinical platinum resistance. His translational research interests encompass the development of molecular targets whose inhibition can reverse platinum resistance, including AKT, mTOR, HDAC4, STAT1, and the Folate Receptors, with several progressing from laboratory to clinic. His current therapeutic work at Papyrus Therapeutics centers on a modified recombinant version of OPCML, a broadly acting tumor suppressor epigenetically silenced in many cancers, which reconstitutes normal receptor tyrosine kinase signaling in tumors to overcome treatment resistance.

His methodological contributions span early-phase clinical trial design and execution, radiomics, integrated multi-omics approaches to patient segmentation, and novel clinical outcome measure development. During his tenure at AstraZeneca (2017 to 2019) as Chief Physician Scientist and Vice President, Head of the Clinical Discovery Unit in Early Clinical Development, he led innovations in clinical trial design leading to improved quality, shortened timelines, and reduced costs, and contributed to drug development from target validation through Phase 1 to 2B across therapeutic areas. He was founding President of the European Translational Ovarian Cancer Network (EUTROC), a multinational group undertaking science in ovarian cancer clinical trials, principally in complex Phase II trials, a role he held until September 2017.

Prof. Gabra has extensive experience in ovarian cancer clinical trials across academic, industry, and leadership roles. He is named as a contributor on the GOG 281/LOGS trial — a Phase 2/3 international randomized open-label study of trametinib versus standard of care in recurrent low-grade serous ovarian cancer — published in The Lancet (2022, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02175-9). He contributed to the randomized Phase II trial of farletuzumab plus chemotherapy versus placebo in low CA-125 platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer (Gynecologic Oncology, 2023, DOI: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2023.01.003). He was a named investigator on the Phase Ib open-label dose-escalation study of NUC-1031 in combination with carboplatin for recurrent ovarian cancer (Clinical Cancer Research, 2021, DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-4403).

He provided a clinical trials service encompassing all phases of clinical research during his tenure at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, including through the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre which he directed from August 2006 to May 2017. As Associate Director and Lead of the Cancer Division (Division 1) of the NIHR Clinical Research Network for North West London until May 2017, he oversaw the broader clinical research infrastructure across the region. He also held leadership responsibility for the CRUK CTAAC funding committee and the INCa Scientific Evaluation Committee of Institute National du Cancer, France.

Prof. Gabra has 333 publications indexed on the Imperial College London research profile. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London (FRCP, since 2005) and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCPE, since 2003). He is a member of the European Society of Gynaecological Oncology, the European Society of Medical Oncology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, the International Gynaecological Cancer Society, the British Gynaecological Cancer Society, the Association of Cancer Physicians, the Association of Physicians of UK and Ireland, and the British Medical Association. He was founding President of EUTROC (European Translational Ovarian Cancer Network) until September 2017. He sits on the editorial boards of Cancer Therapy and Journal of Oncology. Recent high-impact publications include the GOG 281/LOGS trial in The Lancet (2022, altmetric score 1188) and contributions to Cell Reports Medicine (2022, altmetric score 54).

Prof. Gabra studied Medicine at the University of Glasgow, graduating with a BSc (Hons) in Molecular Biology and MB ChB in 1987. He obtained MRCP(UK) in 1990. He then completed an MSc in Clinical Oncology and a PhD in Molecular Oncology (Molecular Genetics) at the University of Edinburgh (1992 to 1996), supervised by Professor David Porteous. He completed his specialist training in Cancer Medicine in Edinburgh and was a CRUK Clinical Scientist and Consultant Medical Oncologist at the CRUK Edinburgh Medical Oncology Unit from 1998 to 2003, heading the CRUK Molecular and Cell Genetics of Ovarian Cancer Group and holding an Honorary Clinical Senior Lectureship at the University of Edinburgh. He took up his Chair appointment at Imperial College London in November 2003.