Professor Anthony Williams MB BS, BSc, MSc, PhD, FRCP
Professor of Translational Medicine
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Professor Tony Williams is Professor of Translational Medicine at the University of Southampton and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Immunology and Allergy.
He graduated from University College London in 1992, undertaking an intercalated degree in Pharmacology. After training in general medicine in Cardiff, he moved to Oxford for specialist training in Clinical Immunology. He was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist PhD Fellowship to study MHC class I presentation at the Weatherall Institute of Medicine, Oxford gaining PhD in 2003. He then moved to Southampton to complete his clinical training and was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist Fellowship to work on translational aspects of antigen presentation in the Cancer Sciences Division at the University of Southampton. He was appointed to a consultant post in 2003 and set up the Wessex Clinical Immunology service for Immunodeficiency disorders.
Professor Williams has led a number of Phase I Cancer Immunotherapy Biomarker programmes evaluating the impact of antibody, small molecule and cellular immunotherapies through his translational research work in the Southampton CRUK/NIHR Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre. In 2013 he established the Wessex Investigational Sciences Hub laboratory (WISH Lab), purpose built translational research laboratory to facilitate the biomarker research programmes in Phase I studies and human translational research. He was Director of the Southampton ECMC between 2013-2018, leading the ECMC renewal programme with a focus in Cancer Immunotherapy, In 2017 the WISH Lab was successful in being appointed one of 4 CRUK Centre for Drug Discovery Biomarker centres of Excellence.
Professor Williams’ research in Primary Immunodeficiency has identified a number of novel genetic immune disorders and the Clinical Department was appointed the first International Centre of Excellence for Immunology and Allergy through the World Allergy Organisation in 2014. He has been an active contributor to the MSc Allergy programme (2004 onwards) and currently leads the MSc Genomics Stratified Medicine and Pharmacogenomics Module of the MSc in Genomic Medicine.
Professor Williams established the Wessex Genomic Medicine centre in 2015 and co-directed the successful delivery of the 100K Genome project across Wessex. In 2019 he became the Deputy Medical Director of the West Midland, Oxford and Wessex Genomic Laboratory Hub, working to implement the advances in genomic medicine into clinical practice in cancer and rare disease.
Qualifications
BSc Pharmacology, University College London (1989)
MB BS (Broderip Medal), University College London (1992)
MRCP, Royal College of Physicians London (1996)
MSc Medical Immunology (1st), University of London (1999)
PhD, Cell Biology of MHC class I Antigen Presentation, University of Oxford (2003)
FRCPath, Royal College of Pathologists London (2003)
Appointments held
Wellcome Trust Clinical Fellow, University of Oxford 1999-2002
Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist, University of Southampton 2003-2007
Honorary Consultant in Clinical Immunology and Allergy, Southampton 2003-
Senior Lecturer in Translational Immunology, University of Southampton 2007-2011
Reader in Translational Immunology, University of Southampton 2011-2015
Professor of Translational Medicine, University of Southampton 2015