Professor Eamonn Maher
Introduction
The home Department of Medical Genetics is located on Level 6 of the Addenbrooke’s Treatment Centre but a number of investigators research groups are based in the Cambridge Institute of Medical Research (CIMR). CIMR is a cross-departmental institute which provides a unique interface between basic and clinical science with the major goal of determining and understanding the molecular mechanisms of disease.
The Department is closely associated with the NHS East Anglian Medical Genetics Service at Addenbrooke’s Hospital which is also located on Level 6 of the Treatment Centre.
Research within the department ranges from the functional biology of genetic disorders to molecular diagnostics and novel approaches to therapy can be grouped into a number of topic areas:
- Diabetes and inflammation (Professor Todd, Professor Wicker and collaborators);
- Inherited Cancers (Professor Maher, Dr Tischkowitz) and Epigenetics (Professor Maher)
- Neurological disorders (Dr Reid, Dr Raymond, Professor Rubinsztein, Professor Woods,);
- Renal disorders (Professor Karet and Dr Sandford)
More detailed information on the various research groups within the department is at http://medgen.medschl.cam.ac.uk/ and for individual investigators available at the following links:
Links with other academic and clinical departments
Members of the Department have close links with other academic departments in the University and with clinical departments at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. There are also strong collaborations with MRC Units on the Biomedical campus and with the Sanger Institute at Hinxton where we are participating in the Trust DECIPHER (DatabasE of Chromosome Imbalance and Phenotype in Humans using Ensembl Resources) project (http://decipher.sanger.ac.uk).
Within the Clinical School research is being carried out to determine genetic risk factors for various diseases. In the Strangeways Research Laboratories researchers from the department of Public Health and Oncology are leading research into the role of common genetic variation in genetic susceptibility to breast, prostrate and ovarian cancer.
Within the Cardiovascular department studies are focusing on the identification of gene-lifestyle interaction to determine risk factors for disease and to facilitate the development of individual and population level intervention.
The department of Pathology is involved in The NHS East Anglian Medical Genetics Service which is also based at the Addenbrooke’s Hospital site and provides a regional clinical and laboratory genetic service. Read more
