Sarah Bowden is the Director of Operations at the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU) at the University of Birmingham.
She graduated with a Biological Sciences degree from Leicester University in 1990. She obtained her PhD from the University of Birmingham in 1994 while working as a Research Associate at the Wolfson Laboratories, Queen Elizabeth Hospital. In 1994 she moved to the Department of Anatomy, University of Birmingham where she worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow studying cell cycle division. In February 1998 she joined the CRCTU as a Trial Coordinator coordinating a national, multicentre, phase III, trial called SECRAB which was designed to determine the optimal sequence of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in patients with early breast cancer. Subsequently she has coordinated a number of investigational medicinal product, multicentre, phase III, breast cancer trials. In 2003 she was promoted to Senior Trial Coordinator managing a portfolio of breast cancer trials and the staff working on those projects.
In April 2009 she was promoted to Assistant Director of Operational Issues.
In October 2013 she was appointed as Director of Operations being responsible for the management of more than 180 members of staff as well as playing a key role in the strategic development of the unit. In addition, she continues to play an active role in the development and management of the unit’s late phase cancer research portfolio and has more recently been involved in the development and delivery of a number of COVID-19 clinical trials.