Bruce Ponder

Sir Bruce Ponder
Born	Bruce Anthony John Ponder (1944-04-25) 25 April 1944
Nationality	British
Fields	Cancer
Institutions	University of Cambridge
Alma mater	University of Cambridge (MA, MB BChir) University of London (PhD)
Thesis	The Nucleoprotein Complexes of Polyoma Virus (1977)
Doctoral advisor	Lionel Crawford
Notable awards	Knight Bachelor (2008) FMedSci FRS (2001)
Website www.oncology.cam.ac.uk/research/groupleaders/ponder.html

Sir Bruce Anthony John Ponder FMedSci FRS (born 25 April 1944) is an English geneticist and cancer researcher. He is Emeritus Professor of Oncology at the University of Cambridge and former director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute.

Education

Ponder was educated at Charterhouse School and Jesus College, Cambridge. He carried out his PhD studies with Lionel Crawford in London working on chromatin organisation and DNA sequence specificity using polyoma virus.

Research

Ponder became interested in cancer genetics in the 1970s, when he saw the potential to use new methods of linkage analysis (using restriction fragment length polymorphisms) to identify genes that predispose to cancer. His team pinpointed the RET gene as the cause of Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2. During the 1990s, Ponder co-founded and chaired the International Breast Cancer Linkage Consortium, which led to the identification of breast cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. BRCA2 specifically was identified by a team including Ponder and led by Mike Stratton.

Career

In 1996, Ponder became Cancer Research Campaign (now Cancer Research UK) Professor of Oncology in Cambridge (in 2007 the chair was re-endowed as the Li Ka Shing Professor of Oncology). He served as co-director of the Strangeways Research Laboratory for Genetic Epidemiology and co-director of the Hutchison/MRC Research Centre.

Ponder was the inaugural Director of the CRUK Cambridge Research Institute (now called the CRUK Cambridge Institute) when it opened in 2007. In this role he put an emphasis on building infrastructure across the research pathway, from basic science through translational research, ensuring that research has clinical impact. He was director of the Cambridge Cancer Centre, a collaboration between the Institute, the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke's Hospital, guiding the centre to OECI Comprehensive Cancer Centre status in 2013.

Awards and honours

In 1997 Ponder delivered the Croonian Lecture to the Royal College of Physicians on the subject of the RET gene. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001, he was knighted for Services to Medicine in the 2008 New Year Honours list, and was awarded the 2013 Cancer Research UK Lifetime Achievement Prize. His nomination for the Royal Society reads:

Bruce Ponder is distinguished for his contributions to human cancer genetics and is a leader in the international collaborations which have led to the identification of genes predisposing for breast and ovarian cancer. His fundamental work on the intestine has underpinned subsequent studies of tumours in the intestinal epithelium.