Dr Duncan Odom
Regulatory Systems Biology Laboratory
Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute
Cambridge
Reading the cell’s ‘instruction manual’
Dr Duncan Odom works at our Cambridge Research Institute. His research is uncovering how genes are switched on and off inside cells, and how this crucial process goes wrong in cancer.
Every cell contains an identical ‘instruction manual’ in the form of DNA. But different cells in the body do different jobs, even though they have the same DNA. This specialisation is possible because individual cells only use certain genes and ‘switch off’ the ones they don’t need.
Dr Odom and his team are studying how cells specialise in this way, switching different genes on and off. His work focuses on the way in which genetic instructions are ‘read’ inside the cell’s control centre or nucleus – a process called transcription. If this process goes wrong, the cell will receive the wrong instructions, which can lead to cancer.
The team are finding out how transcription is controlled, looking at small molecules called micro RNAs that can switch genes on and off. This promising area of research will shed light on how healthy cells become cancer cells, and should lead to innovative new ways to diagnose and treat the disease.
Dr Odom is an outstanding young researcher, and was awarded the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) Young Investigators Programme Prize in 2009.
You can read more about micro RNAs on our Science Update blog.
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