Bosnian and Herzegovinian (BiH) scientist Dr Samra Turajlic has won the Pezcoller Foundation-EACR Award, one of the most significant European recognitions in the field of cancer research.
It is an award granted to leading researchers whose work connects basic science with future clinical applications. Each year, the Pezcoller Foundation-EACR Award is given to one scientist with outstanding results and no more than 15 years of postdoctoral experience, thereby specifically recognizing excellence in the early stages of a career.
Turajlic will officially receive the award at the EACR Congress in 2026, where she will also deliver the award lecture, followed by a lecture in Trento organized by the Pezcoller Foundation.
A distinguished career
Dr Samra Turajlic is a clinician scientist who, since September 2025, has been leading the Cancer Research United Kingdom (UK) Manchester Institute, one of the key research institutions in the UK. Prior to this, she spent nearly a decade working as a consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital, focusing on melanoma and kidney cancer.
Turajlic studied medicine at Oxford, and her doctoral studies were dedicated to the genetics of melanoma and the development of resistance to targeted therapies, contributing to the first significant discoveries on rare types of melanoma and resistance to BRAF inhibitors. In 2014, she received the prestigious CRUK Clinician Scientist Fellowship, after which she began applying evolutionary models in London to explain complex processes in the development of kidney tumors. Since 2019, she has led her own research group at the Francis Crick Institute and has been a CRUK Advanced Clinician Scientist.
Research and recognition
Her scientific work encompasses basic, translational, and clinical research, and she also leads studies dedicated to understanding tumor development, the spread of metastases, and the emergence of resistance to therapy. The laboratory she leads develops advanced diagnostic methods and models that are expected to improve treatment outcomes in the future.
Turajlic is also active in organizations that provide support to patients, including the Kidney Cancer Support Network and Melanoma Focus, and is one of the senior editors at Macmillan Cancer Support. Her work is funded by some of the world’s leading institutions and research foundations, including the Melanoma Research Alliance, the NIH, the Department of Defence, CRUK, the MRC, as well as the companies Roche and BMS.
She is also the recipient of the ESMO Translational Research Award 2022, as well as the UK COVID Cancer Pandemic Prize for her contribution to understanding the impact of the pandemic on cancer patients. Since 2024, she has led the UK consortium MANIFEST, dedicated to researching responses, resistance, and toxicity related to immunotherapy.
