Stratton Group

Somatic mutations in normal and cancer cells

We use DNA sequencing to identify and understand the changes in the genome that occur over the course of a person's lifetime, with a particular focus on identifying the causes of cancer. We identify and ascribe patterns of mutations to environmental and celluar factors to understand when they occur, how they drive cancer, and how their effects vary between human populations.

Our Approach

Our team is composed of PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and permanent members of staff including cancer biologists, bioinformaticians, clinical fellows and project management support.

We use DNA sequencing for somatic mutations to advance understanding of the causes of cancer. In particular, we investigate “mutational signatures”, which report the mutational processes operative over the lifetime of each individual, to understand whether they are generated by endogenous or exogenous exposures and the extent to which these vary between human populations.

Our work brings together global cancer epidemiology and genomics and is particularly characterised by large-scale multinational studies.

Research areas

We currently have two major areas of work:

• Large-scale sequencing of normal and cancer cell genomes to investigate international differences in common mutagenic exposures that may influence cancer incidence.
• Sequencing of normal cell genomes to understand patterns of somatic evolution.