David Hirst

Weiss Medallist 2011

Professor David Hirst is currently Professor Emeritus in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast.  He is also a Fellow of the British Institute of Radiology. He began his scientific career with a PhD in the Physiology of muscle contraction from the University of St. Andrews in 1975.  This was followed by postdoctoral research in collaboration with Julie Denekamp at the Gray Laboratory, into the responses of blood vessels to radiation and how proliferation characteristics of the cellular components of blood vessels determine tumour growth.  This work continued after a move to Stanford University to work with Martin Brown and lead to the concept of adaptation by tumours in vivo to changes in their nutrient supply, with important implications for hypoxic fraction and radiation response.  He was appointed Adjunct Associate Professor in 1996.  In 1999 he returned to the Gray Laboratory to Head the Tumour Vascular Physiology Research Group and continued research into tumour vascular research, specifically how modifiers of vascular tone and haemoglobion affinity affect tumour growth, oxygenation and response to radiation.  The offer of a Chair in Radiation Science in 1994 prompted his relocation to the University of Ulster near Belfast where his research, supported by Cancer Research UK, focused mainly on the role of nitric oxide in tumour growth and radiosensitivity.  His group developed nitric oxide synthase gene therapy and demonstrated that it could be a potent treatment alone or in combination with radiotherapy.  His final appointment in 2004 was as Chair in Experimental Therapeutics at Queen’s University Belfast where, in addition to further development of cancer gene therapy, he has lead pioneering work into the potential of nanogold as a radioenhancing therapy for cancer.

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