News

Ground breaking cancer research at the Dunn School is being strengthened with the award of a six-year grant to junior group leader Dr Monika Gullerova starting in January 2018.

Monika is the sole awardee of a Senior Research Fellowship in Cancer Research UK’s latest funding round in October 2017.

Commenting on the award Head of Department, Professor Matthew Freeman said: “This is a fantastic achievement and well deserved. Monika is intellectually first rate, driven and ambitious, and has built a group that has already produced world-class research work. Her focus on the role of RNA in DNA damage and repair is bold and novel, and the time and resource that a Senior Fellowship provides should support her in building a full-scale internationally leading programme.”

Monika’s research programme aims to progress researchers’ understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind cancer with the hope of leading to new treatments.

Monika explained: “DNA is continuously exposed to various damaging agents. Inefficient DNA repair and an accumulation of DNA damage lead to severe diseases, in particular, cancer. Understandably, there is a strong interest to study the molecular mechanisms of DNA damage response. Until recently, almost all scientific efforts were focused on function and structure of proteins involved in DNA repair pathways. We investigate the novel role of RNA in DNA damage response. Using state of art techniques, we will make fundamental new discoveries to further our understanding of rapid and efficient DNA repair. These discoveries might lead to novel therapeutic approaches to treat genome instability disorders.”

To find out more:

• • Cancer Research UK Senior Cancer Research Fellowship: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/funding-for-researchers/our-funding-schemes/senior-cancer-research-fellowship

• • Monika Gullerova research group: https://www.path.ox.ac.uk/content/monika-gullerova

Jo Peel