About us
The overall aim of the Helleday laboratories is to improve the treatment of cancer by exploiting cancer defects in order to tailor specific drugs for all types of cancer, with minimal side-effects. We work under the ethic "from bench to bedside" covering both basic research and translational work and are fortunate to have a number of collaborations across a range of disciplines. Our basic research involves building an understanding of the mechanisms of action of current DNA damaging agents, in particular at replication forks. We are also interested in replication lesions and the characterisation of pathways repairing these. On the translational side, we are working on identifying synthetic lethal interactions in the DNA repair network in order to find drug targets for cancer therapy. Once identified, we wish to identify small molecule inhibitors against them that we can then go on and test in in vivo tumour models and ultimately use to treat patients in the clinic.
Professor Thomas Helleday
Thomas Helleday is Swedish and obtained his first degree in molecular biology at the Stockholm University (1995). Alongside these studies, he took a degree in Business Administration and Economics at the same university (1996). In 1999, he was awarded a PhD from Stockholm University for his studies on homologous recombination in mammalian cells.
After a short post-doctoral research period with Mark Meuth at the Institute for Cancer Research, Sheffield, UK, he obtained a lectureship at the same institute and set up his own group, with an interest in homologous recombination at replication forks in mammalian cells. At the same time, he maintained grants and a position at the Stockholm University, allowing his group to continue research at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Toxicology. Read more ...
Phase II trial of the oral PARP inhibitor olaparib
A successful case:
Marie had her third relapse of ovarian cancer and contacted Thomas Helleday after she had heard about the PARP inhibitor treatment. She was entered into the trial and the cancer was eradicated. Marie is now in good health.
"Naturally, I am extremely happy and impressed by your work. There are of course not enough words to describe how grateful I am, both for myself and for my children and family's sake. It gives real hope of breaking the chain of cancer in the family. I hope that it will soon appear on the market so that more can be helped by it."
Marie, Stockholm.
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News/Blog
Carcinogenesis Young Investigator Award 2010 goes to Thomas Helleday
Professor Thomas Helleday has been awarded the Carcinogenesis Young Investigator Award 2010 for his recent significant contribution to carcinogenesis research. The award will be presented to him at the EACR meeting in Oslo 26-29 June 2010, where he will be giving a keynote lecture. read more ...
The Future for Cancer Research, implications for Academia
We have seen a great advance in cancer therapy over the last half century and many lives can today be spared due to radio- or chemotherapy. The last couple of decades have provided an enormous amount of information about the molecular mechanism of how normal cells are transformed into cancer cells. read more ...
Prizes
Carcinogenesis Young Investigator Award 2010 - Thomas Helleday
Swiss Bridge Award 2008 by Swiss Cancer League and the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) - Thomas Helleday
Svedberg Award 2008 by SFBM and Swedish National Committee for Molecular Biosciences - Thomas Helleday
European Environmental Mutagen Society (EEMS) Young Scientist Award 2008 - Cecilia Lundin
European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) Young Cancer Researchers Award 2007 - Thomas Helleday
Hilda and Alfred Erikssons prize 2007 - Thomas Helleday
Links to interesting sites
Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology
Job opportunities
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
We have a Postdoc position open at the Oxford lab, to study replication associated DNA damage, replication restart and repair by homologous recombination. The closing date for applications is 1st March 2010. Please see the Gray Institute website for more information.
PhD studentships
The 2010 round of applications for DPhil studentships at The University of Oxford are now closed. A new round of applications will open in the autumn 2010. Please see the Gray Institute website for more information.
There are currently no places for PhD students at Stockholm University, but please keep your eye on the Genetics, Microbiology & Toxicology website for upcoming posts.
