J. Ross Chapman
Ph.D
Associate Professor, CRUK CDF, Lister Fellow & EMBO Young Investigator
Genome stability and DNA repair mechanisms in cancer and genome diversification
The accurate repair of DNA breaks is fundamental for protecting our genomes against cancer-causing mutations, however, the B and T lymphocytes of our immune systems deliberately induce and repair DNA breaks in a mutagenic fashion in order to adapt and diversify antigen receptor molecules. My group is interested in how cells and different tissues strike an appropriate equilibrium between accurate and mutagenic DNA repair mechanisms, so that we can understand why faults in this regulation lead to cancer, and devise innovative strategies to exploit these faults in cancer therapies.