Departmental homepageAfter graduating from Cambridge with a degree in Natural Sciences and a PhD in theoretical condensed matter physics, he undertook postdoctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1995, he returned to Cambridge as a lecturer in the Cavendish Laboratory Department of Physics, and was appointed to a personal chair in 2002. He currently holds the Herchel Smith Chair in the Department of Physics, a Royal Society Professorship in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and is Director of the Gurdon Institute, a centre for developmental and disease biology. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Prizes that he has been awarded include the Gabor Medal of the Royal Society and the Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer by the French Academy of Sciences, and he has been appointed as the first Solvay Chair in Biology.
He has lectured in the Department of Physics and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.
With a background in theoretical physics, the early part of his research career was focused on the physical manifestations of quantum coherence, from localisation phenomena in disordered and superconducting compounds to strongly coupled light-matter systems and ultracold atomic gases. His current research integrates experimental, mathematical and computational approaches to study mechanisms of stem cell fate decision-making in epithelial tissues, using mouse models and 3D organ cultures. His research spans a wide range of topics, from the mechanisms that regulate the development, maintenance and regeneration of epithelial tissues to how these programmes become dysregulated in the transition to diseased and cancerous states.
M. Ciwinska, et al., Field cancerization in mammary tissue is driven by protection mechanisms that clear mutations, Nature 633: 198-206 (2024).
O. Karin, E. A. Miska and B. D. Simons, Epigenetic inheritance of gene-silencing is maintained by a self-tuning mechanism based on resource competition, Cell Systems 14, 24-40 (2023).
M. K. Yum, et al., Tracing oncogene-driven paracrine remodelling of the intestinal stem cell niche, Nature 594, 442-447 (2021).
C. Aztekin, et al., Identification of a regeneration organizing cell defining the specialized wound epidermis of the Xenopus tail, Science 364, 653-58 (2019).
