Mel Greaves

Mel Greaves is the founding father of the field of cancer evolution who established the Darwinian framework for understanding how cancers develop, progress, and resist treatment through clonal selection and evolutionary dynamics. His research at the Institute of Cancer Research has revealed the evolutionary trajectories of childhood leukemia, demonstrating that pre-leukemic clones arise in utero and undergo Darwinian selection over years before clinical presentation. His evolutionary perspective has profoundly influenced modern oncology and led to the development of evolutionary-informed therapeutic strategies.