# Alan Ashworth

Source: https://onco.cc/people/alan-ashworth/  
OnCo record `alan-ashworth` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Co-discovered that BRCA-deficient cancers die when PARP is blocked, the idea behind an entire drug class.

## Summary

Alan Ashworth is President of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and a molecular biologist specialising in DNA repair, synthetic lethality, BRCA and PARP inhibitors. He co-identified BRCA2 and, with colleagues at the Institute of Cancer Research, showed that BRCA-deficient cells die when PARP is blocked, the synthetic lethality behind olaparib and the PARP inhibitor class. His papers include the Nature report on targeting the DNA repair defect in BRCA mutant cells as a therapeutic strategy and a review of synthetic lethal therapies beyond PARP inhibitors, with relevance to ovarian cancer and triple-negative breast cancer. He now leads UCSF's cancer centre.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Role: President, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Specialisms: DNA repair; Synthetic lethality; BRCA; PARP inhibitors

## Sources

- UCSF profile: https://profiles.ucsf.edu/search/?searchtype=people&searchfor=Alan%20Ashworth
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Ashworth%20A%5BAuthor%5D
- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Alan%20Ashworth

## Connected records

- cancers: [Ovarian cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/ovarian/), [Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)](https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc/)
- technologies: [PARP inhibitors](https://onco.cc/technologies/parp-inhibitor/), [Synthetic lethality approaches](https://onco.cc/technologies/synthetic-lethality-approaches/)
- targets: [BRCA1 / BRCA2 (HRD)](https://onco.cc/targets/brca/), [PARP](https://onco.cc/targets/parp/)
- drugs: [Olaparib](https://onco.cc/drugs/olaparib/)
- institutions: [UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center](https://onco.cc/institutions/ucsf/)
- journals: [Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology](https://onco.cc/journals/nature-reviews-clinical-oncology/)

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