We are thrilled to share the news that James Davies has been made a Professor of Genomics at the University of Oxford as part of the 2025 Recognition of Distinction awards - an incredible achievement!
James is a clinician scientist whose work bridges medicine and cutting-edge genetics. He co-leads Theme 2 of our BTRU in Precision Cellular Therapeutics – focusing on graft manipulation and genome editing.
Why does his research matter?
Genome editing therapies hold incredible promise because they allow genetic code to be precisely changed. For the first time, this allows genetic mutations to be corrected directly - but before they reach patients, scientists need to be absolutely sure they’re safe and effective.
Within his team, Joseph Hamley, George Lister and Hangpeng Li are developing new tools to explore how DNA is organised inside our cells and how changes in our genetic code can cause illness. They have recently achieved the most detailed view yet of how DNA folds and functions inside living cells.
‘For the first time, we can see how the genome’s control switches are physically arranged inside cells.'
‘This changes our understanding of how genes work and how things go wrong in disease. We can now see how changes in the intricate structure of DNA leads to conditions like heart disease, autoimmune disorders and cancer.’ said Prof. James Davies.
Information about this groundbreaking work is also published in Cell.
1 - Detailed map of the genome one pixel per nucleotide
Image credit: Radcliffe Department of Medicine
At the same time, Roman Doll, Bora Ozcan and Elizabeth Brown are pioneering ways to use genome editing to improve treatments - especially by engineering stem cells for safer, more effective bone marrow transplants.
Central to this is the development of a powerful new set of tools to detect genetic mutations that can occur when modifying blood stem cells and T cells—two types of cells vital for many medical treatments. Their goal is to carefully examine how these cells are changed by genetic therapies - to help ensure these types of treatments are safe.
They are developing a toolkit of methods which will include new ways of recording errors that happen during genetic editing (Li-Hsin Chang and Daniel Willmott).
Using advanced versions of DNA sequencing, they will be able to pinpoint where mutations happen and how often they occur. This will give us a clearer picture of the safety and reliability of these modified cells—bringing us one step closer to safer, more effective treatments for patients.
Please join us in congratulating Professor Davies and his teams on these well-deserved achievements!
You can find out more about his work on the BTRU website.
Learn more about the Recognition of Distinction awards here.