Serena Nik-Zainal is a British-Malaysian clinician who is a consultant in clinical genetics and

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organisation. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

advanced clinician scientist at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. She makes use of

genomics Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of molecular biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, ...

for clinical applications. She was awarded the

Crick Lecture The Francis Crick Medal and Lecture is a prize lecture of the Royal Society established in 2003 with an endowment from Sydney Brenner, the late Francis Crick's close friend and former colleague. It is delivered annually in biology, particularly th ...

by 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 ...

in 2021. Serena Nik-Zainal was also recognized as one of the 100 Influential Women in Oncology by OncoDaily.

Early life and education

Nik-Zainal was born in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Her father was a cardiologist who was involved in the first

coronary artery bypass surgery Coronary artery bypass surgery, also known as coronary artery bypass graft (CABG, pronounced "cabbage"), is a surgical procedure to treat coronary artery disease (CAD), the buildup of plaques in the arteries of the heart. It can relieve chest ...

to take place in Malaysia. She was supported by

Petronas Petroliam Nasional Berhad, commonly known as PETRONAS (stylised in all caps), is a Malaysian Multinational corporation, multinational petroleum, oil and natural gas, gas company headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. Established in 1974, it is a lega ...

to attend the

, where she studied medicine. She moved to 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 ...

in 2009, where she started doctoral research using

whole genome sequencing Whole genome sequencing (WGS), also known as full genome sequencing or just genome sequencing, is the process of determining the entirety of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a single time. This entails sequencing all of an organism's ...

to better understand breast cancer. Whole genome sequencing allows for Nik-Zainal to understand the frequency, distribution and mutation patterns of cancer. She showed that it was possible to identify mutational signatures using downstream analysis, and that algorithms could be used to identify abnormalities quickly. These signatures are left by mutations that occur during the development of cancer. During her research she identified the

hypermutation Somatic hypermutation (or SHM) is a Cell (biology), cellular mechanism by which the adaptive immune system, immune system adapts to the new foreign elements that confront it (e.g. microbes). A major component of the process of affinity maturation, ...

kataegis.

Research and career

Nik-Zainal was awarded a

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 ...

Clinical Fellowship in 2013. She moved to the

, where she explored

of tumours. Her research combined computational processes and cell-based model systems. In 2017 Nik-Zainal moved to the

, supported by a

Advanced Clinician Scientist fellowship. Her research group investigate the physiology of mutagenic activity. She has studied both driver and passenger mutations. Passenger mutations can be used to understand how DNA is damaged and repaired during

tumorigenesis Carcinogenesis, also called oncogenesis or tumorigenesis, is the formation of a cancer, whereby normal cells are transformed into cancer cells. The process is characterized by changes at the cellular, genetic, and epigenetic levels and abn ...

. Nik-Zainal looks to identify mutational signatures in human cancers and the aetiologies that give rise to them. Nik-Zainal leads the clinical research project ''Insignia'', which researches mutational signatures in people with

neurodegeneration A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Neuronal damage may also ultimately result in their cell death, death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic lateral sc ...

, ageing syndromes and

DNA repair DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell (biology), cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. A weakened capacity for DNA repair is a risk factor for the development of cancer. DNA is cons ...

defects. Nik-Zainal has continued to develop computational approaches to identify

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

damage in tumours, insight into which can help to determine the most effective treatment in cancer patients. , she has an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with success indicators such as winning t ...

of 70.

Awards and honours

She was awarded the

by the

for her work on he aetiology of cancer and contributions to cancer therapies. In 2021 she was awarded a Research Professorship at the

National Institute for Health Research The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government's major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21, its mission is to "improv ...

(NIHR). She was the first woman to win the Josef Steiner Cancer Research Award in 2019.

Selected publications

Her publications * ''Signatures of mutational processes in human cancer'' * ''Landscape of somatic mutations in 560 breast cancer whole-genome sequences'' * ''Massive genomic rearrangement acquired in a single catastrophic event during cancer development''

Personal life

Nik-Zainal has two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nik-Zainal, Serena Malaysian women academics Malaysian biologists Malaysian women scientists Cancer researchers English people of Malaysian descent Alumni of the University of Cambridge Academics of the University of Cambridge NIHR Research Professors Year of birth missing (living people) Living people