Dr. Timothy Yap is a Medical Oncologist and Physician-Scientist, and the Ransom Horne, Jr. Endowed Professor for Cancer Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a tenured Professor in the Department for Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Program) and Head of Clinical Development and Vice-President in the Therapeutics Discovery Division.

Dr. Yap gained his BSc degree with First Class Honors in Immunology at Imperial College London, UK, and was awarded the Huggett Memorial Prize. He attained his MD from Imperial College London before completing medical training in Oxford. He undertook a Drug Development Fellowship at Royal Marsden Hospital (RMH), before completing a PhD in Molecular Pharmacology at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) under a Cancer Research UK Fellowship. He was awarded a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Academic Clinical Lectureship, before being appointed Consultant Medical Oncologist and NIHR BRC Physician-Scientist at RMH/ICR.

Dr. Yap’s translational lab and clinical research focuses on innovative cancer drug discovery and development, particularly in targeting the DNA Damage Response (DDR) and genome instability with novel therapeutics using predictive and pharmacodynamic biomarkers. His lab research is supported by multiple peer-reviewed federal grants, including two NIH/NCI-R01 grants, three DOD grants, NIH/NCI-SPORE grant, V-Foundation Scholar Award, CPRIT award, NCI-UM1 grant and multiple Industry grants.

Dr. Yap has published over 275 articles in top peer-reviewed journals. He received the 2019 NCI Michaele Christian Oncology Development Award, 2021 Krakoff Clinical Research Award, 2023 Frei Translational Research Award and 2025 Dallas/Fortworth Living Legend Faculty Achievement Award in Translational Research. He is an elected member of the AACR Board of Directors and Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Cancer Research. He serves as Chair of the AACR Special Conferences Committee, Vice-Chair of the AACR Lung Cancer Taskforce and Co-Director of the ASCO-AACR Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop.