Rate My Professor Ester Hammond

Professor Ester Hammond is Professor of Molecular Cancer Biology in the Department of Oncology at the University of Oxford. She earned her PhD from the School for Cancer Sciences at the University of Birmingham. Following her doctorate, she served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Molecular Oncology Group at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine and later as a postdoctoral fellow and research associate in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Stanford University. Hammond joined the Department of Oncology at the University of Oxford in 2007, advancing to her current professorial role. She holds key leadership positions as the Tumour Microenvironment (TME) Research Theme lead and Academic lead for the Department of Oncology’s Pathways to Academic Independence (PAI) programme. She is also a Governing Body Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford.

Hammond’s research investigates the mechanisms by which tumours survive and adapt to low oxygen (hypoxic) conditions, a major contributor to resistance against radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Her group explores hypoxia-induced responses, including the DNA damage response pathway active under hypoxia without detectable DNA damage, the unfolded protein response, and chromatin modifications. They develop novel hypoxia-activated prodrugs designed to selectively target and eliminate hypoxic tumour cells while sparing normal tissues, testing these in conditions that mimic the tumour microenvironment. This work extends to applications in challenging cancers, such as paediatric high-grade gliomas, supported by Brain Research UK funding awarded in 2026. In recognition of her mentorship, Hammond received the Excellence in Mentorship award from the Radiation Research Society in 2020.

Her influential publications include “HIF-1-regulated TPM3 links hypoxia to motility and invasion beyond the hypoxic fraction in triple-negative breast cancer” (Zhou et al., NPJ Breast Cancer, 2026), “Chromosomal instability shapes the tumor microenvironment of esophageal adenocarcinoma via a cGAS-chemokine-myeloid axis” (Beernaert et al., Sci Adv, 2026), and highly cited papers such as “Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy” (Klionsky et al., Autophagy, 2016) and “XBP1 is essential for survival under hypoxic conditions and is required for tumor growth” (Romero-Ramirez et al., Cancer Research, 2004).