AACR Names Dr. Timothy Yap as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Clinical Cancer Research
PHILADELPHIA – The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) today announced the appointment of Timothy A. Yap, MBBS, PhD, as editor-in-chief of Clinical Cancer Research, one of the 10 highly esteemed journals published by the AACR.
Clinical Cancer Research publishes innovative clinical and translational cancer research studies that bridge the laboratory and the clinic, with an emphasis on clinical trials evaluating novel treatments, precision oncology, combination therapy, pharmacology, and molecular alterations or biomarkers that predict response or resistance to treatment.
“The AACR is delighted to welcome Dr. Yap as editor-in-chief of Clinical Cancer Research,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), chief executive officer of the AACR. “He will bring enormous expertise, energy, and dedication to this important role. We are excited to work with Dr. Yap to support and implement his vision for the journal as he is internationally known for his outstanding clinical research. We look forward to this opportunity to work with him.”
Yap is the Ransom Horne, Jr. Endowed Professor for Cancer Research in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Program) at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he is also vice president and head of clinical development in the Therapeutics Discovery Division and associate director of translational research in the Khalifa Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy.
An internationally acclaimed leader in clinical and translational cancer research and precision medicine, Yap has served as principal investigator for multiple phase I/II biomarker-driven trials of first-in-class agents and combinations of targeted therapies and immunotherapies, with a focus on DNA repair and synthetic lethality. His main research interests include the targeting of the DNA damage response (DDR) with novel therapeutics, such as inhibitors of PARP1, ATR, WEE1, POLQ, USP1, PKMYT1, PARG, CHK1, ATM, and DNA-PK; next-generation inhibitors of CDK2, CDK4, and CDK7; YAP/TEAD inhibitors; Werner helicase inhibitors; SMARCA2 inhibitors; and the development of novel immunotherapeutics.
Yap’s research has also explored the use of circulating tumor DNA as a predictive biomarker of response and resistance to novel agents in clinical trials. He is also interested in the development of new pharmacodynamic biomarkers and the translational analysis of patient tumors.
“It is a true privilege to be selected as editor-in-chief of Clinical Cancer Research,” said Yap. “I look forward to enhancing our understanding of cancer biology and translating these insights into transformative patient outcomes through innovative biomarker-driven trials and other clinically relevant studies.”
Yap has been an active member of the AACR since 2007. He is currently the chair of the AACR Special Conferences Committee; a member of the AACR Clinical Trials Advisory Council; and a member of the AACR Task Force on Precision Combination Therapy. He is the AACR codirector for the AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop, for which he also served on the faculty from 2017-2022; AACR chair for the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, for which he also served on the program committee in 2015; and a member of the faculty and the program committee for the EORTC-ESMO-AACR Workshop on Methods in Clinical Cancer Research, for which he also served as faculty from 2015-2017.
He has greatly contributed to the success of the AACR Annual Meeting and its clinical trials program in various ways, including as cochair of the AACR Annual Meeting Clinical Trials Committee from 2021-2023; cochair of the AACR Annual Meeting 2022 Program Committee; and member of the AACR Annual Meeting 2017 Program Committee. He was chair of the AACR Industry Roundtable in 2023 and 2018 and previously served as member of the AACR Exploratory IND/Phase 0 Clinical Trials Task Force (2022-2023), AACR Cancer Progress Report 2022 Steering Committee, AACR Landmarks Committee (2022), and AACR-CRUK Transatlantic Postdoctoral Fellowships Scientific Review Committee (2018).
Over the course of his career, Yap has been recognized with many honors and awards, including the Emil Frei III Award for Excellence in Translational Research (2023) and Irwin H. Krakoff Award for Excellence in Clinical Research (2021) from MD Anderson; a V Foundation V Clinical Scholar award (2020); the National Cancer Institute’s Michaele C. Christian Oncology Development Lectureship and Award (2019); and the U.K. Association of Cancer Physicians McElwain Prize (2012).
He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Imperial College London and his doctorate from The Institute of Cancer Research in London. Yap has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications and coedited two textbooks.
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