Professor Nick Lakin

I am Fellow and Tutor in Biochemistry at St Peter’s College and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology in the Department of Biochemistry. I gained a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Warwick and following Postdoctoral Research posts at University College London and the University of Cambridge, joined St Peter’s as the Rank Fellow of Biochemistry in 2001.

Teaching

At St Peter’s I teach aspects of the biochemistry course concerned with cell biology, molecular biology and genetics. Within the Faculty I teach several courses central to the molecular biology and genetics aspects of the course including the basis of nucleic acid structure and function, the molecular basis of DNA replication, and how the integrity of the genome is maintained through DNA repair. I have also contributed to teaching the 4th year Cancer Biology option.

Research

My laboratory is interested in understanding the molecular basis of genome stability. The DNA of organisms is under continual assault from a variety of agents that induce DNA damage. As such, cells have evolved a number of mechanisms that detect and repair DNA damage to restore genome integrity.

We use a variety of genetic and cell biology approaches to understand how DNA repair functions at the molecular level. Loss of an ability to perform DNA repair results in genome instability and a variety of clinical symptoms including neurological degeneration, immune deficiencies and a predisposition to cancer. Therefore, understanding the molecular basis of DNA repair will help us understand and treat the clinical outcomes associated with defective DNA repair.