Andrew C G Porter

Career: I obtained my first degree (BSc, Biochemistry) from Bristol Uiversity in 1978, and a PhD (DPhil, Biochemistry) from Oxford University in 1981. After two postdoctoral research fedllowships at Stanford University USA (1981-1984) and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund UK (now Cancer Research UK, 1984-1988), I was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship which I held at Oxford University (1988-1994). I became an honorary Lecturer at Imperial College in 1994 when I joined the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, which subsequently became part of the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine). Here I became an honorary Reader in 2001, joining the Centre for Haematology as University Reader in 2004. Research interests: The use of homologous recombination to engineer defined changes into the genome (gene targeting) is a fascinating research area, not only because of its importance as a genetic reseach tool and promising mode of gene therapy, but also because of the underlying cellular mechanisms for repairing DNA double strand breaks. These mechanisms are far from being properly understood and progress in this area is important if gene targeting is to be fully exploited. Conversely, studying the factors that influence the efficiency and accuracy of gene targeting can add to our understanding of cellular DNA repair. While gene targeting has become widely used in mouse genetics during the last 20 years, its use in human cells, whether for the study of cell biology or for the correction of disease-causing mutations, has been far more restricted, mainly because of efficiency problems. Andy's own research ranges from the use of gene targeting to study basic problems in cell biology (e.g. the roles of Cdk1 in the cell cycle and DNA repair, Topoisomerase II in chromosome dynamics, and Bcl6 in B-cell function), through analyses of the role of DNA repair proteins in gene targeting and DNA double strand break repair, to the use of customised endonucleases to promote gene correction at the human beta-globin locus.