About Professor Samra Turajlić

Samra Turajlić completed her undergraduate studies at Oxford University and her clinical training at UCL medical school. She gained a PhD in 2013 from Institute of Cancer Research in the field of melanoma genetics and targeted therapy resistance.

In 2014, she was awarded a Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist Fellowship to study cancer evolution at the Francis Crick Institute. She completed her training in medical oncology in 2015 and was appointed a Consultant Medical Oncologist on the Skin and Urology Units at the Royal Marsden. She became an independent Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute in 2019, and divided her time between the clinic and her lab.

In 2025 Samra became the Director of the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, where she is also a Senior Group Leader and Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust.

Prof Turajlic is the Chief Investigator of translational studies into melanoma and kidney cancer (TRACERx), and her research goal is to develop an evolutionary understanding of cancer for patient benefit. She is a member of the NCRI Bladder and Renal Cancer Clinical Studies Group, ESMO Faculty member for genitourinary cancers; and Scientific Committee member for ESMO, Molecular Analysis for Personalised Therapy, Kidney Cancer Association, and EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposia.

She is a Trustee of the Kidney Cancer Support Network and Melanoma Focus, and a Senior Editor at Macmillan Cancer Support. Prof Turajlic receives research funding from CRUK, Rosetrees Trust, the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, and the RMH/ICR Biomedical Research Centre, among others.