Professor Michael Stratton

Mike is Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, where he is joint head of the Cancer Genome Project, which aims to elucidate the genetic causes of human cancers.

Mike is also Professor of Cancer Genetics at the Institute of Cancer Research.

He qualified in medicine at Oxford University and Guys Hospital, trained as a histopathologist at the Hammersmith and Maudsley Hospitals and obtained a PhD in the molecular biology of cancer at the Institute of Cancer Research. His research interests have been in the genetics of cancer. He led the group that mapped and identified the high risk breast cancer susceptibility gene, BRCA2. More recently he has found moderate risk breast cancer susceptibility genes such as CHEK2, ATM, BRIP and PALB2 as well as genes for skin, testis, colorectal, thyroid, and childhood cancers. At the Cancer Genome Project he conducts high throughput, systematic genome wide searches for somatic mutations in human cancer in order to identify new cancer genes, to understand processes of mutagenesis in human cancers and to reveal the role of genome structure in determining abnormalities of cancer genomes. These studies have led to the discovery of activating somatic mutations in the BRAF and ERBB2 genes in melanoma and lung cancer respectively and have described basic patterns of somatic mutation in cancer genomes. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2008.

Selected Publications

• Patterns of somatic mutation in human cancer genomes.

  Greenman C, Stephens P, Smith R, Dalgliesh GL, Hunter C, Bignell G, Davies H, Teague J, Butler A, Stevens C, Edkins S, O'Meara S, Vastrik I, Schmidt EE, Avis T, Barthorpe S, Bhamra G, Buck G, Choudhury B, Clements J, Cole J, Dicks E, Forbes S, Gray K, Halliday K, Harrison R, Hills K, Hinton J, Jenkinson A, Jones D, Menzies A, Mironenko T, Perry J, Raine K, Richardson D, Shepherd R, Small A, Tofts C, Varian J, Webb T, West S, Widaa S, Yates A, Cahill DP, Louis DN, Goldstraw P, Nicholson AG, Brasseur F, Looijenga L, Weber BL, Chiew YE, DeFazio A, Greaves MF, Green AR, Campbell P, Birney E, Easton DF, Chenevix-Trench G, Tan MH, Khoo SK, Teh BT, Yuen ST, Leung SY, Wooster R, Futreal PA and Stratton MR

  Nature 2007;446;7132;153-8

  PUBMED: 17344846; PMC: 2712719; DOI: 10.1038/nature05610

• PALB2, which encodes a BRCA2-interacting protein, is a breast cancer susceptibility gene.

  Rahman N, Seal S, Thompson D, Kelly P, Renwick A, Elliott A, Reid S, Spanova K, Barfoot R, Chagtai T, Jayatilake H, McGuffog L, Hanks S, Evans DG, Eccles D, Breast Cancer Susceptibility Collaboration (UK), Easton DF and Stratton MR

  Nature genetics 2007;39;2;165-7

  PUBMED: 17200668; PMC: 2871593; DOI: 10.1038/ng1959

• Lung cancer: intragenic ERBB2 kinase mutations in tumours.

  Stephens P, Hunter C, Bignell G, Edkins S, Davies H, Teague J, Stevens C, O'Meara S, Smith R, Parker A, Barthorpe A, Blow M, Brackenbury L, Butler A, Clarke O, Cole J, Dicks E, Dike A, Drozd A, Edwards K, Forbes S, Foster R, Gray K, Greenman C, Halliday K, Hills K, Kosmidou V, Lugg R, Menzies A, Perry J, Petty R, Raine K, Ratford L, Shepherd R, Small A, Stephens Y, Tofts C, Varian J, West S, Widaa S, Yates A, Brasseur F, Cooper CS, Flanagan AM, Knowles M, Leung SY, Louis DN, Looijenga LH, Malkowicz B, Pierotti MA, Teh B, Chenevix-Trench G, Weber BL, Yuen ST, Harris G, Goldstraw P, Nicholson AG, Futreal PA, Wooster R and Stratton MR

  Nature 2004;431;7008;525-6

  PUBMED: 15457249; DOI: 10.1038/431525b

• A census of human cancer genes.

  Futreal PA, Coin L, Marshall M, Down T, Hubbard T, Wooster R, Rahman N and Stratton MR

  Nature reviews. Cancer 2004;4;3;177-83

  PUBMED: 14993899; PMC: 2665285; DOI: 10.1038/nrc1299

• Mutations of the BRAF gene in human cancer.

  Davies H, Bignell GR, Cox C, Stephens P, Edkins S, Clegg S, Teague J, Woffendin H, Garnett MJ, Bottomley W, Davis N, Dicks E, Ewing R, Floyd Y, Gray K, Hall S, Hawes R, Hughes J, Kosmidou V, Menzies A, Mould C, Parker A, Stevens C, Watt S, Hooper S, Wilson R, Jayatilake H, Gusterson BA, Cooper C, Shipley J, Hargrave D, Pritchard-Jones K, Maitland N, Chenevix-Trench G, Riggins GJ, Bigner DD, Palmieri G, Cossu A, Flanagan A, Nicholson A, Ho JW, Leung SY, Yuen ST, Weber BL, Seigler HF, Darrow TL, Paterson H, Marais R, Marshall CJ, Wooster R, Stratton MR and Futreal PA

  Nature 2002;417;6892;949-54

  PUBMED: 12068308; DOI: 10.1038/nature00766

• Low-penetrance susceptibility to breast cancer due to CHEK2(*)1100delC in noncarriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.

  Meijers-Heijboer H, van den Ouweland A, Klijn J, Wasielewski M, de Snoo A, Oldenburg R, Hollestelle A, Houben M, Crepin E, van Veghel-Plandsoen M, Elstrodt F, van Duijn C, Bartels C, Meijers C, Schutte M, McGuffog L, Thompson D, Easton D, Sodha N, Seal S, Barfoot R, Mangion J, Chang-Claude J, Eccles D, Eeles R, Evans DG, Houlston R, Murday V, Narod S, Peretz T, Peto J, Phelan C, Zhang HX, Szabo C, Devilee P, Goldgar D, Futreal PA, Nathanson KL, Weber B, Rahman N, Stratton MR and CHEK2-Breast Cancer Consortium

  Nature genetics 2002;31;1;55-9

  PUBMED: 11967536; DOI: 10.1038/ng879

• Identification of the familial cylindromatosis tumour-suppressor gene.

  Bignell GR, Warren W, Seal S, Takahashi M, Rapley E, Barfoot R, Green H, Brown C, Biggs PJ, Lakhani SR, Jones C, Hansen J, Blair E, Hofmann B, Siebert R, Turner G, Evans DG, Schrander-Stumpel C, Beemer FA, van Den Ouweland A, Halley D, Delpech B, Cleveland MG, Leigh I, Leisti J and Rasmussen S

  Nature genetics 2000;25;2;160-5

  PUBMED: 10835629; DOI: 10.1038/76006

• Pathology of familial breast cancer: differences between breast cancers in carriers of BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations and sporadic cases. Breast Cancer Linkage Consortium.

  No authors listed

  Lancet 1997;349;9064;1505-10

  PUBMED: 9167459

• Identification of the breast cancer susceptibility gene BRCA2.

  Wooster R, Bignell G, Lancaster J, Swift S, Seal S, Mangion J, Collins N, Gregory S, Gumbs C and Micklem G

  Nature 1995;378;6559;789-92

  PUBMED: 8524414; DOI: 10.1038/378789a0

• Localization of a breast cancer susceptibility gene, BRCA2, to chromosome 13q12-13.

  Wooster R, Neuhausen SL, Mangion J, Quirk Y, Ford D, Collins N, Nguyen K, Seal S, Tran T, Averill D et al.

  Science (New York, N.Y.) 1994;265;5181;2088-90

  PUBMED: 8091231