Dr Andy Futreal
Dr. Futreal received his PhD in Pathology from the University of North Carolina in 1993. He then was an Assistant Professor at Duke University in the Departments of Surgery, Gynecologic Oncology and Genetics before moving to the to the UK in 2000 to start the Cancer Genome Project with Mike Stratton and Richard Wooster.
He is currently Co-Director of the Cancer Genome Project with Mike Stratton and a Senior Investigator at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. His research background includes work on identification of BRCA1 and BRCA2 as well as investigations into the somatic genetics of breast and gynaecological malignancies. His current research areas are using genome-based approaches to investigate the somatic genetics of human cancer – including high-throughput sequencing and array-based methods. This work has lead to the identification of BRAF as a new human cancer gene, and other progress including identification of ERBB2 mutations in lung cancer, FBXW7 and PTEN mutations in T-cell leukaemia and identification of chemo-resistance mechanisms in glioblastoma.
His work also focuses on investigating the genetics of human disease, particularly X-linked disorders, and the translation of basic research findings with a focus on applying somatic cancer genetics to clinical oncology problems.