Sir Michael Rudolf Stratton (born 22 June 1957) is a British clinical scientist and the third director of the

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute The Wellcome Sanger Institute, previously known as The Sanger Centre and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a non-profit organisation, non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is l ...

. He currently heads the Cancer Genome Project and is a leader of the

International Cancer Genome Consortium The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) is a voluntary scientific organization that provides a forum for collaboration among the world's leading cancer and genomic researchers. The ICGC was launched in 2008 to coordinate large-scale ca ...

.Michael Stratton's publications in Google Scholar
/ref>
Patterns of mutation in human cancer genomes
' – video of a seminar given by Stratton at the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

.
Every human 'could get their own genome sequence'
' – Interview with Stratton on BBC's the

Today Programme ''Today'', colloquially known as ''the Today programme'', is BBC Radio 4's long-running morning news and current-affairs radio programme. Broadcast on Monday to Saturday from 06:00 to 09:00 (starting on Saturday at 07:00), it is produced by BB ...

Education

Stratton was educated at the independent

Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School Haberdashers' Boys' School (formerly Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School) is a 4–18 boys Independent school (United Kingdom) in Elstree, Hertfordshire, England. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school was ...

and obtained a

Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education trad ...

degree from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

where he was a student of

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The l ...

. He completed his clinical training at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital founded by philanthropist Thomas Guy in 1721, located in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the Kin ...

before training as a histopathologist at the Hammersmith and Maudsley Hospitals in London. He obtained a PhD while working on

Medulloblastoma Medulloblastoma is a common type of primary brain cancer in children. It originates in the part of the brain that is towards the back and the bottom, on the floor of the skull, in the cerebellum, or posterior fossa. The brain is divided into two ...

s in the molecular biology of cancer at the

Institute of Cancer Research The Institute of Cancer Research (the ICR) is a public research institute and a member institution of the University of London in London, United Kingdom, specialising in oncology. It was founded in 1909 as a research department of the Royal Ma ...

, awarded by the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in 1990.

Career and research

Stratton has held clinical posts at

Westminster Hospital Westminster Hospital was a hospital in London, England, founded in 1719. In 1834 a medical school attached to the hospital was formally founded. In 1939 a newly built hospital and medical school opened in Horseferry Road, Westminster. In 1994 the ...

Hammersmith Hospital Hammersmith Hospital, formerly the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, and later the Special Surgical Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in White City, London, White City, West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the ...

and the

Royal Marsden Hospital The Royal Marsden Hospital is a specialist National Health Service oncology hospital in London based at two sites in Brompton, in Kensington and Chelsea, and Belmont in Sutton. It is managed by The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and supp ...

. He took up a Faculty appointment and now holds a Professorship at the

. He joined the Sanger Institute in 2000 and was promoted to deputy director in 2007. In May 2010, he was appointed director, succeeding

Allan Bradley Allan Bradley FRS is a British geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Education Bradley was educated at the University of Cambridge where he earned Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and PhD degrees in genetics from Trinity College, ...

. Stratton's research interests are in the area of genetics of cancer. In 1994, he assembled a research group that localised

BRCA2 ''BRCA2'' and BRCA2 () are human genes and their protein products, respectively. The official symbol (BRCA2, italic for the gene, nonitalic for the protein) and the official name (originally breast cancer 2; currently BRCA2, DNA repair associate ...

, a major breast cancer susceptibility gene that repairs chromosomal damage, to

chromosome 13 Chromosome 13 is one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans. People normally have two copies of this chromosome. Chromosome 13 spans about 113 million base pairs (the building material of DNA) and represents between 3.5 and 4% of the total DNA i ...

. The following year his team identified the gene and, in doing so generated a megabase segment of high-quality human genome sequence. His subsequent work has involved the identification of more moderate cancer susceptibility genes such as

CHEK2 CHEK2 (Checkpoint kinase 2) is a tumor suppressor gene that encodes the protein CHK2, a serine-threonine kinase. CHK2 is involved in DNA repair, cell cycle arrest or apoptosis in response to DNA damage. Mutations to the CHEK2 gene have been link ...

, ATM and

PALB2 Partner and localizer of BRCA2, also known as PALB2 or FANCN, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the ''PALB2'' gene. Function This gene encodes a protein that functions in genome maintenance (DNA repair#Double-strand breaks, double ...

each of which play a role in some breast cancers. He has additionally identified genes implicated in the development of skin, testis, colorectal and thyroid cancers,

Wilms tumour Wilms' tumor or Wilms tumor, also known as nephroblastoma, is a cancer of the kidneys that typically occurs in children (rarely in adults), and occurs most commonly as a renal tumor in child patients. It is named after Max Wilms, the German surg ...

and

Peutz–Jeghers syndrome Peutz–Jeghers syndrome (often abbreviated PJS) is an dominance (genetics), autosomal dominant genetic disorder characterized by the development of benign hamartomatous Polyp (medicine), polyps in the human gastrointestinal tract, gastrointestinal ...

. At the announcement of the completion of the

Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...

in 2000, Stratton discussed using genome sequences to revolutionise cancer treatment. He and Andy Futreal had already initiated the Cancer Genome Project at the

Sanger Centre The Wellcome Sanger Institute, previously known as The Sanger Centre and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is located on the Wellcome Ge ...

, as it was then known, to use genome-wide analysis to find

somatic mutation A somatic mutation is a change in the DNA sequence of a somatic cell of a multicellular organism with dedicated reproductive cells; that is, any mutation that occurs in a cell other than a gamete, germ cell, or gametocyte. Unlike germline muta ...

s in human cancers. According to fellow cancer researcher Chris Marshall, doing so prior to the completion of the human genome sequence was an "audacious idea." The aims of the project are to identify new cancer genes, to understand how cancers develop and to study how the structure of genomes influence cancer. In 2002 and 2004, Stratton's team discovered mutations in the BRAF and

ERBB2 Receptor tyrosine-protein kinase erbB-2 is a protein that normally resides in the membranes of cells and is encoded by the ''ERBB2'' gene. ERBB is abbreviated from erythroblastic oncogene B, a gene originally isolated from the avian genome. The ...

genes in approximately 60 per cent of

malignant melanoma Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer; it develops from the melanin-producing cells known as melanocytes. It typically occurs in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye (uveal melanoma). In very rare case ...

s and 4 per cent of

non-small-cell lung cancer Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), or non-small-cell lung carcinoma, is any type of epithelial lung cancer other than small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). NSCLC accounts for about 85% of all lung cancers. As a class, NSCLCs are relatively insensitiv ...

s respectively. In 2009, Stratton and colleagues reported the first complete cancer genomes, from a lung tumour and a melanoma. They also analysed the genomes from 24 different breast tumours and found a diversity of DNA abnormalities, indicating that cancers can be divided in more subcategories than previously thought. Stratton's team maintain the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) database, a set of online resources available to the

scientific community The scientific community is a diverse network of interacting scientists. It includes many "working group, sub-communities" working on particular scientific fields, and within particular institutions; interdisciplinary and cross-institutional acti ...

. He is also one of the lead researchers in the International Cancer Genome Project, a £600 million, multi-national project to sequence 25 000 cancer genomes, from 50 different types of cancer. Stratton's research has been funded by the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

and the Medical Research Council (MRC).

Controversy

In August 2018 it was reported that an investigation was under way into allegations of bullying of staff and gender discrimination made against senior management of the

, including Stratton. The independent investigation, carried out by the barrister Thomas Kibling from

Matrix Chambers Matrix Chambers is a barristers' chambers in Gray's Inn London, Brussels, and Geneva. Founded in April 2000 by 22 barristers from 7 different chambers, it now has over 90 independent and specialist lawyers who work throughout the UK and internat ...

, concluded in October 2018 and cleared Stratton of any wrongdoing. The public report stated that the allegation of bullying was "misplaced, unwarranted and misconceived", while also listing areas for improvement in the workings of the Sanger Institute. Some of the claimants disputed these findings.

Awards and honours

Stratton was elected a

Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) is an award for medical scientists who are judged by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences for the "excellence of their science, their contribution to medicine and society and the range of the ...

(FMedSci) in 1999, elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 2008, elected to

EMBO Membership Membership of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is an award granted by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in recognition of "research excellence and the outstanding achievements made by a life scientist". , 88 EM ...

in 2009 and was awarded the Lila Gruber Cancer Research Award in 2010. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the

2013 Birthday Honours The 2013 Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of t ...

for services to medical science. His nomination for the

reads: In May 2022, Stratton was awarded the inaugural 'In Search of Wonder Lifetime Achievement Award' at the Cambridge Independent's Science and Technology Awards, sponsored by Waterbeach creative design agency JDJ Creative. He received the award at a ceremony held at the

Wellcome Genome Campus The Wellcome Genome Campus is a scientific research campus built in the grounds of Hinxton Hall, Hinxton in Cambridgeshire, England. Campus The Campus is home to some institutes and organisations in genomics and computational biology. The Cam ...

, just three months after announcing his decision to step down as director of the

Wellcome Sanger Institute The Wellcome Sanger Institute, previously known as The Sanger Centre and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a non-profit organisation, non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is l ...

and CEO of the

after 12 years in the post. In 2024 he received the

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society. Two are given for "the mo ...

of the

.Royal Medal 2024
/ref>

References

, {{DEFAULTSORT:Stratton, Michael Rudolf Living people Academics of the Institute of Cancer Research Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford British geneticists Fellows of the AACR Academy Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Bachelor Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization People educated at Haberdashers' Boys' School 1957 births Wellcome Trust