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Biosketch:
Douglas Easton is Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge and a Principal Research Fellow of Cancer Research UK. He is also honorary director of Strangeways Research Laboratory. He received a first class honours degree in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. in genetic epidemiology at the Institute of Cancer Research, London. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2002. In 2008 he was awarded the inaugural Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research from the American Association for Cancer Research and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
His principal research interests are in the genetic epidemiology of common diseases, especially cancer. His major research contributions have involved the design and analysis of large-scale genetic epidemiological studies, and the development of statistical methodology. He was one of the leading investigators in the mapping of the BRCA2 breast cancer predisposition gene. He co-founded the Breast Cancer Linkage Consortium, and his work lead to the development of reliable risk estimates for BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers, and the development of the first comprehensive risk model for breast and ovarian cancer (BOADICEA). Much of his recent work has focussed on the analysis of common, lower penetrance, variants in cancer. His group co-ordinates the analysis of three large international consortia: the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC), Prostate Cancer Association Group to Investigate Cancer Associated Alterations in the Genome (PRACTICAL), and the Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1/2 (CIMBA). He led the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) in breast cancer, which resulted in the identification of the first common susceptibility variants in this disease, and has co-directed successful GWAS in prostate, endometrial and testis cancer that have led to the identification of multiple genetic variants for these diseases. He is also evaluating the role of rarer variants in breast and prostate cancer, and susceptibility to cancer-related traits including breast density, steroid hormones and telomere length. |
