Timothy Yap

Timothy Yap, MBBS, PhD, FRCP is Associate Vice President for Clinical Research and Head of the Drug Development Phase I Clinical Trials Program at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a world-leading authority on phase I trials of DNA damage response (DDR) inhibitors, synthetic lethality-based drug combinations, and umbrella trial design in solid tumors. Trained at The Royal Marsden and the ICR in London under pioneering phase I investigators, Dr. Yap has led first-in-human and phase I trials of PARP inhibitors (olaparib, niraparib), ATR inhibitors, WEE1 inhibitors, POLQ inhibitors, and multiple DDR drug combinations. He is a principal architect of the IMPACT2 umbrella trial at MD Anderson, a next-generation molecularly guided basket/umbrella study integrating tumor-agnostic biomarker selection across the phase I portfolio. His work on pharmacodynamic biomarkers of DDR inhibition—including DNA damage markers (γH2AX, RAD51), replication stress assays, and ctDNA—has established quantitative frameworks for confirming target engagement and predicting response in phase I DDR trials. Dr. Yap is a prolific author and sought-after speaker on early-phase trial innovation, DDR biology, and precision oncology.