Ruth is the Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research, Newcastle University and an honorary consultant medical oncologist in Newcastle Hospitals Foundation Trust. She is Director of the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre within the Northern Centre for Cancer Care, which is a dedicated clinical trials unit. She leads the Newcastle Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and also the CRUK Newcastle Cancer Centre. Ruth trained at Cambridge and Oxford, obtaining both a medical degree and scientific PhD. Her research interests are in the field of DNA repair and early-phase clinical trials of novel agents or novel imaging targets, taking the first-in-class PARP inhibitor into the clinic in 2003, ATR inhibitor in 2012, and MCT1 inhibitor in 2014.