Rate My Professor Simak Ali

Professor Simak Ali is Professor of Molecular Endocrine Oncology in the Department of Surgery & Cancer, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London. He leads the hormone-dependent cancer transcriptional research programme, concentrating on the molecular mechanisms of steroid hormone receptor action, especially in breast and prostate cancers. His research investigates resistance to hormone therapies and develops new therapeutic interventions for therapy-resistant cases. Ali heads the Breast Cancer research group and contributes to studies on androgen signalling in prostate cancer. His laboratory has identified critical drivers of therapy resistance and pioneered drug candidates advancing to clinical trials.

Ali earned a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from Imperial College London in 1985 and a PhD in Genetics from the University of Edinburgh in 1989, after which he held a postdoctoral fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organisation. He has been a group leader at Imperial College London since 1992 and holds his current professorial chair there. Key research milestones include the discovery that VGLL1, induced by estrogen receptor-α, drives resistance to selective estrogen receptor degraders (SERDs) in ER-positive breast cancer, and the development of samuraciclib (CT7001), a first-in-class selective CDK7 inhibitor that has completed Phase II trials for advanced ER-positive breast cancer and shows promise in hormone-dependent prostate cancer models. These efforts involve collaborations yielding awards such as the Royal Society of Chemistry Malcolm Campbell Memorial Prize (2023) for the CDK7 inhibitor discovery. With over 295 publications amassing more than 15,500 citations, prominent works include "APOBEC3B-Mediated Cytidine Deamination Is Required for Estrogen Receptor Action in Breast Cancer" (Cell Reports, 2015), "Expression of CDK7, Cyclin H, and MAT1 Is Elevated in Breast Cancers" (Clinical Cancer Research, 2016), "The CDK7 inhibitor CT7001 (Samuraciclib) targets proliferation in models of hormone-dependent prostate cancer" (British Journal of Cancer, 2023), and "Induction of the TEAD Co-activator VGLL1 by Estrogen Receptor-α Controls Breast Cancer Growth" (Endocrinology, 2021). He serves as Senior Editor for Journal of Endocrinology and Journal of Molecular Endocrinology, and Associate Editor for Oncogene.