Medical Research Council (MRC) Cancer and Genome Integrity PhD Programme 2019

The 4-year PhD programme has two main themes: DNA replication and DNA repair. Karim Labib’s lab studies the eukaryotic replisome that is assembled and disassembled during every cell cycle, to ensure that the chromosomes are duplicated just once. Karim’s group focuses on multiple ubiquitylation pathways that mediate replisome disassembly during S-phase and mitosis, preserving genome integrity in ways that are just starting to be unravelled. John Rouse’s lab focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying the signaling and repair of DNA damage, especially those that perturb DNA replication, with emphasis on the control of these mechanisms by phosphorylation and ubiquitylation. John’s lab is particularly keen to understand how derailment of DNA repair causes disease, and in developing anti-tumour strategies based on inhibition of DNA repair.