David Crosby BSc, PhD

David Crosby is head of early detection research at Cancer Research UK. He began life as a baby before becoming a pharmacologist, studying cell signalling in platelets. He spent time in academia and industry (identifying and evaluating new clinical development opportunities) before joining the Medical Research Council, where he oversaw various science areas and research funding programmes, most recently leading the MRC-NIHR methodology research programme. He has worked with an array of grant and fellowship review boards and panels, and has at least a partial understanding of what they look for. He has led several strategic reviews of research areas and consequent development of new funding initiatives. He is now developing a new strategy and programme of research investments at CRUK which aims to accelerate progress towards earlier detection and treatment of cancer, which he finds to be jolly good fun.