The Jeggo Laboratory has a focus in studying the DNA damage response to DNA double strand breaks (DSBs). This encompasses pathways of DSB repair and a signal transduction pathway that influences the repair process and activates cell cycle checkpoint arrest and apoptosis. We study the processes and how they interface to maintain genomic stability.

Exposure to ionising radiation induces DSB formation. Our work inherently involves studying the response to radiation exposure. We are interested in how the damage response processes protect us from radiation damage and the limitations of the mechanisms.

In addition, we study how defects in these processes contribute to human disease and the role of the processes during development. We carry out diagnostic testing for defects in the double strand break repair pathway (see diagnosis).

Finally, we collaborate with  Mark O'Driscoll, another laboratory within the Genome Damage and Stability Centre, to identify causal defects for human disorders that confer microcephaly and developmental delay (including Seckel Syndrome, MOPD and Meier-Gorlin Syndrome) and study how the defects lead to the clinical features.

Our work is funded by