Group Leader Julian Sale has been announced as the new Joint Head of the LMB’s Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry (PNAC) Division. Alongside Phil Holliger, he will guide the Division’s research into core biological processes, including those which underpin immunity and cancers, and manage the Division’s expanding programme of synthetic biology research. A stalwart of the PNAC Division, Julian has been a Group Leader since 2001 and has also previously served as Director of Graduate Studies at the LMB. He is also Senior Executive Editor of Nucleic Acids Research. His valuable experience means he is ideally positioned to provide strategic insight and leadership for the Division’s development.
Julian’s research is focussed on understanding why DNA replication can become stalled, be it through DNA damage or naturally occurring secondary structures, and how the cell responds to this. He is particularly interested in how replication blocks can cause mutagenesis and epimutagenesis, changes in the DNA sequence and in the chromatin environment of a region of DNA respectively. By combining somatic and stem cell genetics with advanced sequencing technologies, Julian’s group investigates how these processes shape genome function in both healthy populations and cancer. For example, his team has generated high-resolution maps of human replication origins, showing that DNA breaks and mutations frequently occur at the very sites where replication begins, which can ultimately drive genome instability and evolution.
Julian was recently announced as a co-lead investigator on SynHG (Synthetic Human Genome), a Wellcome-backed project to develop the foundational and scalable tools to synthesise the human genome. Running in partnership with a social science programme investigating the socio-ethical implications of the work, this research promises unprecedented insights into how life works at a fundamental level. It also presents opportunities to develop new targeted therapies and unlock entirely novel fields of research dedicated to bettering human health.
The PNAC Division
The PNAC Division was created in 1962 as the LMB moved to its new building on the Addenbrooke’s campus and officially adopted the name MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. The Division, initially just called Protein Chemistry until 1965, welcomed Fred Sanger and his group from the Biochemistry Department at the University of Cambridge, where he began his Nobel Prize-winning work on nucleic acids. Today, the Division’s research covers several topics, including the immune system, chemical origins of biology and the mechanisms behind core cellular functions. In parallel, the Division has also expanded to tackle key research questions surrounding synthetic biology.
Further references
Julian’s group page
Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry Division
Scientific Leadership at the LMB