Ivan Ahel, EP Abraham Professor of Chemical Pathology at the University of Oxford, is an outstanding researcher and a world leader in the field of ADP-ribosylation, a major protein modification involved in processes such as DNA repair. His fundamental research has uncovered a crucial role for ADP-ribosylation in human disease, including links to cancer, neurodegeneration and infectious diseases.
Professor Ahel has recently started exploring the translational impact of his fundamental discoveries, and has established commercial collaborations to develop molecules that inhibit ADP-ribosylation systems involved in cancer and infectious diseases. This includes working on the discovery of inhibitors against a promising anti-SARS-CoV-2 protein target and the discovery of novel cancer biomarkers.