Prof. Carlos Caldas is a clinician scientist and Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge. He is the Chair of Cancer Medicine at the University of Cambridge, an Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Director of the Cambridge Breast Cancer Research Unit. Prof. Caldas graduated from the University of Lisbon Medical School, and trained at both the University of Texas Southwestern and Johns Hopkins University Hospital, before completing a research fellowship at the University of London. Prof. Caldas joined the Weizmann Institute of Science as a Visiting Professor in 2019.
Prof. Caldas conducts research on the biological and clinical implications of breast cancer genomics. His laboratory redefined the molecular taxonomy of breast cancer: The Caldas group revealed novel subtypes and causal pathways of breast cancer, and shown how it is possible to use functional genomics to predict the trajectories and relapse risk among different breast cancer subtypes. His group’s genetic profiling work has delineated a new role for microRNA molecules (miRNA)— tiny, functionally distinct bits of genetic material endowed with the ability to switch numerous genes on or off—as modulators of the immune response in a subset of breast cancers.
In addition, Prof. Caldas has co-led seminal studies of the genomic variability underlying triple negative breast cancers and the ways in which estrogen receptors affect genomic activity in primary breast tumors. His group led the studies of breast cancer biomarkers and novel ways to utilize biopsied tissue to overcome chemo-resistance. More recently, his laboratory has developed and pioneered the use of patient-derived tumors as a model system for breast cancer, in particular as a pre-clinical platform for testing responsiveness to different therapeutic interventions.
A prolific author of over 350 published journal articles, Prof. Caldas received the 2016 ESMO Hamilton Fairley Award, and is currently funded through an ERC Advanced Grant. He is a fellow of the Academy of the Medical Sciences, a fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, and a member of EMBO.