Chris Lord

Team leader at the Institute of Cancer Research, London.

Precision-Panc Grantholder

Much of the focus of Chris Lord’s work is in exploiting genetic concepts such as synthetic lethality and functional genomics approaches to understand the behaviour of tumour cells. The ultimate aim of this work is to use this information to design novel ways to treat the disease.

In recent years Dr Lord’s Gene Function Team at the ICR have used these approaches to understand how PARP inhibitors might be used to treat cancer and to develop novel drugs such as Tankyrase inhibitors. In addition, the laboratory has focussed on identifying and validating novel targets for use in breast cancer as well as dissecting the genetic control of drug sensitivity and drug resistance in this disease.

Dr Lord studied Biochemistry at the University of Surrey and completed his DPhil in 1997, working on complex disease genetics at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford. After a post-doctoral position at the CIMR, University of Cambridge, he joined the ICR in 2000, becoming a Staff Scientist in 2005, Senior Staff Scientist in 2008 and a Reader in 2014.