Ruth A. Roberts

Professor, University of Birmingham, UK

AstraZeneca R&D, UK
Department Of Safety Assessment

Ruth A. Roberts is Senior Director of Toxicology at AstraZeneca and visiting Professor at the University of Birmingham, UK.  She gained her PhD in Medical Oncology in 1987 before conducting post-doctoral research with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) in London, UK.  From 1990 to 2002, she led a research team at Zeneca (now Syngenta) Central Toxicology Laboratory (CTL) focused on PPARa, apoptosis and the molecular basis of species differences in the response to drugs and chemicals.  Her contribution to the fields of cancer biology, carcinogenesis and toxicology was recognized in 2002 when she received the SOT Achievement Award.  In 2002, Ruth moved from the UK to France to take up the role of Director of Toxicology for Aventis Pharma, Paris where she oversaw many regulatory and investigative toxicology projects.  In 2004, Ruth was appointed Director of Toxicology for AstraZeneca at Alderley Park, UK where she is responsible for pre-clinical toxicology input across the drug discovery and development portfolio.  Ruth has served on the EUROTOX executive committee since 2006.  As well as her involvement with EUROTOX, Ruth is past-president of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) Carcinogenesis specialty section and is membership committee chair and is a member of the executive of the British Toxicology Society. She has experience of working with national and international advisory boards such as the UK Government Department of Health Committee on Carcinogenesis and the ILSI RSI workgroup on human relevance of rodent tumors.  She is vice chair of the Gordon Conference on ‘Mechanisms of Toxicity’ in 2008 and will be chairing this key toxicology meeting in 2010.  She has authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers, given over 40 invited international presentations and edited a book entitled ‘Apoptosis in Toxicology’.