Robert Beckman MD

Robert Beckman, MD, a mathematical biologist and oncology clinical researcher, aims to improve cancer drug development and utilization. He has played significant leadership roles in developing new oncology clinical research groups at 4 pharmaceutical companies and in 5 cross-company collaborations.

Dr. Beckman studies cancer evolution and its impact on optimal therapeutic strategies. These studies have led to the concept of efficiency of carcinogenesis that numerous experimental results. This work inspired the invention of dynamic precision medicine for cancer, that considers intra-tumor heterogeneity and evolution, and holds great clinical promise.

His clinical research career spans numerous pathways and technology platforms. He has brought 23 molecules into early development, 5 into late development and 2 to market, and pioneered one of the first oncology clinical research program in pediatric cancers. He has co-invented novel clinical strategies for proof of concept studies, biomarker-driven clinical development, and confirmatory basket trials.

Educated at Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Beckman did his clinical training in Pediatrics at Stanford University and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the University of Michigan, and postdoctoral work in nucleic acid and protein biophysics at Fox Chase Cancer Center (on a National Cancer Institute Physician Scientist Award) and the Bristol Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute.