Udai Banerji, MD, PhD is Deputy Director of the Drug Development Unit, a joint initiative between the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. He is Professor of Molecular Cancer Pharmacology at the ICR and a group leader of the Clinical Pharmacodynamics Biomarker Group, Clinical Pharmacology & Trials and the Clinical Pharmacology Adaptive Therapy Group.

Professor Banerji is a leading figure in early-phase clinical trials and translational oncology, with a research focus on overcoming drug resistance and optimizing the clinical application of molecularly targeted cancer therapies. He has played a key role in the development of numerous first-in-human studies and targeted agents including HSP90, HDAC, AKT, RAF, ROCK I/II and MPS1, CHK1 and alpha folate targeted TS inhibitors. He leads academic studies sponsored by the ICR, Cancer Research UK and trials sponsored by pharmaceutical companies; a principal investigator and a sub-investigator in over 35 and 100 first-in-human studies, respectively.

He obtained his medical degree from the University of Calicut and completed an MD in Internal Medicine from the University of Bombay, before moving to the UK, where he earned his MRCP and later a PhD from the University of London. He completed his medical oncology training at The Royal Marsden and received his CCT in 2007.

Professor Banerji was awarded his FRCP in 2012 and later confirmed a NIHR Professor of Molecular Cancer Pharmacology and Cancer Research UK Reader, and has received multiple awards for translational research, including the AACR Team Science Award (2012) and the CRUK Translational Research Award (2013).