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29 July 2025

New Joint Head of the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences Appointed

Professor Sheila Singh MD PhD FRCS(C) has been appointed as the new Joint Head of the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences and Head of the Comprehensive Cancer Centre. Her academic position at King’s will be as Professor of Neuro-oncology and Neurosurgery, and she will hold a senior strategic advisory role with Evelina London, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Sheila Singh

Professor Singh will join King’s early next year from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where she is currently Professor of Surgery and Biochemistry and Director of the Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research (CDCR) at McMaster University, as well as Paediatric Neurosurgeon at McMaster Children’s Hospital and Division Head of Neurosurgery at McMaster University.

Professor Singh’s research focuses on aggressive primary brain tumours that typically affect children, including the dissection of the molecular mechanisms that drive tumour initiation. Her lab has established unique pipelines for discovery from human brain tumour samples and dissecting mechanisms that may be therapeutically targeted for this life-threatening condition. Particular therapeutic areas of focus are tailored immunotherapies and molecular therapies both for primary tumours and brain metastases. She has also established a unique clinical academic training programme for surgeons, the McMaster Surgeon Scientist Program.

Professor Singh has won many awards, including most recently the 2024 Canadian Cancer Society Robert L. Noble Prize for outstanding achievements in basic biomedical cancer research. She is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and of the Royal Society of Canada, and a council member of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR). A highly-cited researcher, she has published more than 200 papers in journals such as Nature, Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, Cell Stem Cell, Cancer Research and PNAS.

Professor Ajay Shah, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King’s said: “We are thrilled to be welcoming a clinician scientist of the calibre of Professor Singh to lead our ambitious programmes in cancer. The extensive academic and leadership experience that she brings will help to further extend the Faculty’s existing reputation for cutting-edge translational and applied clinical research.”

Professor Singh said: “I am honoured and excited to be joining King’s, especially in light of its outstanding global reputation for pioneering and multidisciplinary cancer research. I am also very much looking forward to working with colleagues at Evelina London Children’s Hospital to help shape the future of very specialist children’s cancer services for south London and much of southeast England.”

Ms Gubby Ayida, Evelina London CEO, said: “We are delighted that Professor Sheila Singh will bring her expertise to Evelina London, particularly in helping shape the Children’s Cancer Principal Treatment Centre. Her outstanding clinical and pre-clinical research leadership will provide far reaching benefits to the wider Evelina London.”