The Locker Cafe, 54 King Street, Cambridge CB1 1LN
Wed 8th Aug, 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Cancer can be caused by environmental and behavioural factors such as exposure to UV light and smoking. These factors all result in damage to our DNA, but the exact pattern of this damage generates a unique ‘fingerprint’. Currently we have identified around 50 of these fingerprints, but we only know what causes around half of them. Identifying these will further our understanding of how cancers develop and could also explain why some cancers are much more common in some areas of the world than others. The CRUK Grand Challenges address the biggest global challenges in cancer, and this ambitious worldwide project will attempt to identify the origin of these unidentified fingerprints by analysing 5,000 patients with 5 cancer types across 5 continents, with the hope of finding new preventable causes of cancer.
Dr Sarah Moody is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. She studied for her PhD at the University of Cambridge identifying novel genetic features in lymphoma. She then moved to the Wellcome Sanger Institute to work with Professor Mike Stratton on the CRUK grand challenge, seeking to identify new preventable causes of cancer by investigating the mutation signatures or ‘fingerprints’ generated by environmental and behaviour factors.
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This is a free and non-ticketed event.
Doors open at 18:45 so arrive early to avoid disappointment.
Starts at 19:00 and finish around 20:30.
Drinks and snacks will be available to purchase from the cafe.