Centre for Genome Stability
at the ICR and The Royal Marsden

We aim to harness the breadth of expertise in genomic stability at the ICR to develop new and better therapies against cancer to make the most meaningful impact in clinics.

The centre will establish a single-domain antibody screening facility to generate DNA-repair related biomarker detection and intracellular antibody protein perturbation tools.

The Centre's main themes are as follows:

Molecular Mechanisms of Genome Stability Maintenance

Maintenance of genome stability is accomplished throughout the cell cycle by a complex network of proteins referred to as the DNA-damage response (DDR) pathways. Mutations in DDR factors are associated with elevated cancer predisposition. Understanding this will allow us to target tumour-specific DDR dependencies for improved cancer treatments.

Understanding Replication Stress Responses

Cells control DNA replication with the highest possible fidelity in order to prevent catastrophic changes to their genome. Understanding how DNA replication and repair machineries function and how these processes differ in cancer cells could provide new prognostic tools and therapeutic targets.

Integrative Systems Biology of Cancer and Ageing

We will develop tools to interrogate large data sets of genetic, genomic and proteomic information to generate hypotheses for experimental analysis, with the ultimate goal of understanding the changes that occur to the genomes and proteomes of cells as they transition to a cancerous or aged state.

Genome Instability and Cancer Therapeutics

New dependencies within the DDR pathways may represent targetable vulnerabilities in cancer cells, with a major focus on synthetic-lethal interactions and over-reliance on DDR pathways allowing for selective killing of cancer cells.

We want to accelerate the translation and delivery of our research.

As one of the world’s most influential cancer research institutes, we discover more new cancer drugs than any other academic centre in the world. We have made game-changing discoveries that revolutionised the way cancer is studied and treated.

Work with us in the Centre for Genome Stability to develop and commercialise our novel discoveries to defeat cancer. Contact us at [email protected] to work with us.

Internal collaborative opportunities

The Centre supports activities to bring together genome stability expertise across the ICR and The Royal Marsden in order to support and develop new collaborative opportunities.

Centre short talk series

Participate in our series of short talks and hear from colleagues. Next event is expected to take place in October 2024. Further details TBC.

Single-domain Antibody Facility

We have established our Single-domain Antibody Facility with ongoing pilot studies. There will be a call for screening projects.

Requirements to access the facility

Protein/antigen concentration of 500µg – 1mg, with objective of antibody for advice on tag (i.e. denatured/native form of protein). Final validation to be undertaken by research teams due to limited capacity within the facility. If you are interested to find out more, please contact Dr Divya Duscharla at [email protected].

Clinical Research Fellowships

Colleagues across the ICR and The Royal Marsden can apply to appoint Clinical Research Fellows (3-year PhD), addressing a reverse translation topic (bed-to-benchside) and involving clinical and fundamental research labs.

We are now accepting outline project proposals from potential supervisors for the next round of Clinical Research Fellowships for 2025/26 entry.

Please contact [email protected] to express your interest or if you have any questions.