Professor Sam Behjati will lead the development of the Cambridge Children's Research Institute which will sit at the heart of the new hospital, solely dedicated to improving the health of children and young people.
Childhood cancer expert Professor Sam Behjati has been announced as the new Head of the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Children’s Research Institute at the planned new Cambridge Children’s Hospital.
Professor Behjati, a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, also holds positions as Honorary Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, and Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
It is an enormous privilege to be given the opportunity to lead child health research in Cambridge, and I look forward to working and collaborating with individuals and stakeholders from around the campus.
Professor Sam Behjati, Head of Paediatrics, University of Cambridge, and Director of Cambridge Children's Research Institute
Professor Patrick Maxwell, Regius Professor of Physic and Head of the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of Cambridge, said: “I am delighted that we have appointed Sam as Head of the Department of Paediatrics. He is an accomplished clinician scientist who has made important contributions to understanding cancers in childhood that have been recognised through prestigious awards.”
Alongside being Head of Department, Professor Behjati will be the Director of the Cambridge Children’s Research Institute, a key component of the new Cambridge Children’s Hospital. The Institute will embed research into the facility, bringing researchers and clinicians together in one place to create a collaborative and multi-disciplinary environment dedicated to improving the health of children and young people. It will work to understand the early origins of physical and mental health conditions, using this knowledge to intervene sooner, shifting from reactive care to prevention and early intervention, to mitigate or prevent onset of serious disease.
Originally from Germany, Professor Behjati read Medicine at Oxford University and pursued academic clinical training in London and Cambridge, including a PhD at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Funded by successive Wellcome Fellowships and then a Group Leader position at Sanger in 2018, he built a genomic research effort into the origins of childhood cancer.
His research is broad – it is tumour agnostic and technologically versatile – and combines DNA sequencing and single cell ‘omic’ methods. He retains a clinical practice as an Honorary Consultant Paediatric Oncologist and treats children with solid tumours outside the brain.