معرفی
Professor Stephen Kearsey is a Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Oxford’s Department of Biology and a Tutorial Fellow at Keble College. His research focuses on DNA replication mechanisms, genome stability, and their roles in cancer development using the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe as a model system. He investigates how DNA replication is regulated, including the prevention of re-replication and the coordination of replication with repair processes. Key areas include Cdt1 proteolysis, ribonucleotide reductase regulation, and the role of replication defects in cancer.
His work combines genetic, biochemical, and cell biological approaches to study replication origins, checkpoint mechanisms, and DNA repair pathways. Recent projects explore how replication defects contribute to cancer through mutations in polymerase proofreading domains, modeled in fission yeast. He supervises graduate students and collaborates with clinical groups to translate findings into human cancer research.
Research highlights include elucidating PCNA’s role in Cdt1 ubiquitylation, mechanisms inhibiting meiotic DNA re-replication, and demonstrating that cancer-associated polymerase mutations induce mutagenic effects in yeast. His lab’s methodologies include live-cell imaging, chromatin analysis, and biochemical assays.
Professor Kearsey’s contributions bridge fundamental cell biology and clinical implications, emphasizing the importance of replication fidelity in disease prevention. His research addresses critical questions in genome maintenance and its failure in cancer and aging.
