Thomas Helleday is Professor of Translational Oncology and Director of the Sheffield Cancer Centre at the University of Sheffield.

Thomas Helleday obtained his first degree in molecular biology at the Stockholm University (1995). Alongside these studies, he took a degree in Business Administration and Economics at the same university (1996). In 1999, he was awarded a PhD from Stockholm University for his studies on homologous recombination in mammalian cells. 

After a short post-doctoral research period at the Institute for Cancer Research, Sheffield, UK, he obtained a lectureship at the same institute and set up his own group. At the same time, he maintained grants and a position at the Stockholm University, allowing his group to continue research at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Toxicology. Thomas Helleday held two professorships; one as MRC Professor of Cancer Therapeutics at the Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology at the University of Oxford, and the other as Professor of Molecular Genetics at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Toxicology at Stockholm University.

Prior to undertaking his current assignment, Professor Helleday was the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg Professor of Translational Medicine and Chemical Biology at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden and head of division of translational medicine and chemical biology.

Professor Helleday has been awarded numerous eminent international grants and awards in recognition of his research accomplishments including the Eppendorf-Nature Young European Investigator Award (2005) for outstanding contribution within the field of biomedical science by the journal Nature and the prestigious ERC advanced grant (2010). He has currently been awarded a total of EUR 18.7 million in research grants.

Professor Helleday has authored >130 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals.