J. Carl Barrett, Ph.D.

Dr. J. Carl Barrett is Vice President of Translational Medicine at AstraZeneca Oncology where he is responsible for development and execution of biomarker strategies and translational research efforts to support drug development across the entire oncology portfolio. The TM team consists of experts in genomics, proteomics, computational biology, informatics, computational pathology and AI. From 2005-2011, he was Global Head of Oncology Biomarkers and Imaging in Novartis Oncology Translational Medicine.

Prior to joining Novartis, Dr. Barrett was the founding Director of the NCI Center for Cancer Research (CCR), which is the NCI intramural center for translation medicine and novel technologies. He also was Chief of the Laboratory of Biosystems and Cancer. Prior to joining NCI, Dr. Barrett was the Scientific Director at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences where his efforts focused on integrating new approaches to toxicology by utilization of molecular approaches of toxicogenomics, molecular toxicology, and the Environmental Genome Project.

Dr. Barrett’s research interests at NIH focused on discovery of critical genetic and epigenetic changes in the cancer cell, in particular the discovery of genes involved in breast cancer (BRCA1) in cellular senescence (SIRTs, TERT) and cancer metastasis (KAI1) and the role of the biosystem in cancer. Since joining Pharma, he has contributed to the development of multiple drugs and diagnostics. He is also actively involved in external cancer research efforts (FNIH, FOCR, BloodPac, ARPA-H)

Trained as a chemist at the College of William and Mary, Dr Barrett received his Ph.D. degree in Biophysical Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University. He has published over 600 research articles and reviews. He is a member of the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars, an elected member of the Ramazini Foundation, an honorary member of the Japanese Cancer Association, and recipient of multiple NIH awards and Keynote lectures.