Mark O’connor

Biography

Mark is Chief Scientist in AstraZeneca's Oncology IMED in Cambridge, UK, heading up the DNA Damage Response (DDR) biology area. This involves leading the strategy to identify and develop inhibitors of DDR to generate new medicines for cancer patients. The current portfolio includes one approved product, two agents in clinical trials and an ATM inhibitor due to enter the clinic in 2015. Mark is also lead scientist for AstraZeneca’s  recently approved PARP inhibitor and AZD1775, a WEE1 inhibitor in Phase II. A key component of the DDR strategy was the in-licensing of the WEE1 inhibitor AZD1775 from Merck in late 2013. After going to Bristol University in 1983 to study Microbiology, Mark gained a PhD in Molecular Genetics in the Biochemistry department before moving to Singapore as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, where he worked on the transcriptional regulation of human papillomavirus oncogenes and their association with cervical cancer. In 1999, Mark returned to the UK to take up a position as one of the three science team leaders at KuDOS, a spin-out biotech company based on the work of Professor Steve Jackson at Cambridge University, and at the time of his move to AstraZeneca in 2010 was Chief Scientist.

Research Interest

Pathology