Clare Turnbull

Clare Turnbull is Professor of Translational Cancer Genetics in the Division of Genetics and Epidemiology at the Institute of Cancer Research, London. Her research spans statistical, population and public-health-related analyses of genetic cancer susceptibility and the implementation of expanded genomic testing. She is currently rolling out a new £4.3 million Cancer Research UK (CRUK)-funded programme, CanGene-CanVar: Data Resources, Clinical and Educational Tools to Leverage Cancer Susceptibility Genetics for Early Detection and Prevention of Cancer.

As an honorary consultant in Public Health, she is working closely with the UK Health Security Agency on this programme to incorporate genomic data into the National Cancer Registration datasets. She is also in the process of initiating BRCA-DIRECT, a CRUK-funded programme to develop and pilot a digital platform to deliver BRCA testing, enabling the extension of testing to all women with breast cancer. Undertaking germline, somatic and functional genomic studies in various tumour types, she has a particular interest in testicular cancer, and her team has led the international field in identifying genetic factors influencing testicular germ cell tumorigenesis.

Having trained as a Clinical Geneticist, her clinical work at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust focuses on the management of patients and families with genetic susceptibility to cancer. From 2014 to 2020, she worked as Clinical Lead for Cancer Genomics for the Genomics England 100,000 Genomes Project.

She undertook her preclinical training in Cambridge and qualified in medicine from the University of Oxford. She undertook general medical training across hospitals in Oxford and London, and specialist training in Clinical Genetics in London. She completed a PhD in Genetic Epidemiology and Molecular Genetics at the ICR and a Master's degree in Epidemiology and Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is a Member by Distinction of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine, and a Fellow of both the Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Physicians.