Professor Jason Parsons 

Professor Parsons acquired his BSc in Medical Biochemistry in 1996 and PhD in Biochemistry in 2000, both from the University of Birmingham. He then worked as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the CRUK Paterson Institute for Cancer Research in Manchester (2000-2002). In 2003, Professor Parsons joined the MRC Radiation and Genome Stability Unit in Harwell, and from 2008-2012 worked as a Senior Investigator Scientist at the CRUK/MRC Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology at the University of Oxford.

Professor Parsons joined the Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine at the University of Liverpool in 2012, and is now Chair in Radiation Biology in Liverpool, and Honorary Lead for Radiobiology Research at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. As a radiation biologist, his Group's research is focussed on the biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology of ionising radiation (radiotherapy). Professor Parsons’ main interests are on examining the biology of radiation of different ionisation densities, particularly proton beam therapy and other high-linear energy transfer (LET) radiation in comparison to low-LET photons (X-rays), and largely its impact on the signalling and processing of DNA damage in relation to cell survival. The impact of biological factors including tumour hypoxia and examination of ultra-high dose rate (FLASH) radiotherapy are also being investigated. Research is largely centred on models of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), but also on other radioresistant cancers including glioblastoma (GBM), with the major goal being to identify optimal strategies including combinatorial treatment with targeted drugs/inhibitors to enhance sensitivity of these cancers to both low and high-LET radiotherapy. His research is currently being funded by grants from North West Cancer Research (NWCR), the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Professor Parsons will move to the University of Birmingham to take up a new post as Chair in Radiation Biology in January 2023.