{"entity":{"id":"serena-nik-zainal","kind":"person","name":"Serena Nik-Zainal","aka":[],"tldr":"Deciphered the mutational signatures written in cancer genomes and turned them into clinical tests like HRDetect.","summary":"Serena Nik-Zainal led the whole-genome analysis of 560 breast cancers that catalogued mutational signatures and rearrangement patterns, and developed HRDetect, which identifies homologous recombination-deficient tumours beyond BRCA carriers and predicts PARP inhibitor sensitivity. Her group analysed the 100,000 Genomes Project cancers and builds signature-based tools for the NHS. She won the Francis Crick Medal in 2019.","asOf":"2026-09-10","links":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Nik-Zainal%20S%5BAuthor%5D%20mutational%20signatures"}],"tags":["genomics","mutational-signatures","uk"],"related":[],"cancers":["tnbc","breast-hr-positive"],"sections":[],"technologies":["wes-wgs","hrd-testing"],"targets":["brca","parp"],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["cruk-cambridge-centre"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":["paper-vogelstein-cancer-genome-landscapes-science-2013"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Professor of Genomic Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Cambridge; Honorary Consultant in Clinical Genetics","institutionId":"cruk-cambridge-centre","specialisms":["Mutational signatures","Whole-genome sequencing","Breast cancer genomics","Clinical genomics"],"profiles":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Nik-Zainal%20S%5BAuthor%5D%20mutational%20signatures"}],"papers":[{"title":"Landscape of somatic mutations in 560 breast cancer whole-genome sequences","journal":"Nature","year":2016,"doi":"10.1038/nature17676"},{"title":"HRDetect is a predictor of BRCA1 and BRCA2 deficiency based on mutational signatures","journal":"Nature Medicine","year":2017,"doi":"10.1038/nm.4292"},{"title":"Cancer genome landscapes: about 140 driver genes, and each tumour needs only a handful","journal":"Science","year":2013,"url":"https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1235122","doi":"10.1126/science.1235122"}],"orcid":"0000-0001-5054-1727"},"route":"/people/serena-nik-zainal/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"breast-hr-positive","kind":"cancer","name":"HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer","route":"/cancers/breast-hr-positive/"},{"id":"tnbc","kind":"cancer","name":"Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)","route":"/cancers/tnbc/"}],"technology":[{"id":"hrd-testing","kind":"technology","name":"HRD & BRCA testing","route":"/technologies/hrd-testing/"},{"id":"wes-wgs","kind":"technology","name":"Whole-exome & whole-genome sequencing","route":"/technologies/wes-wgs/"}],"target":[{"id":"brca","kind":"target","name":"BRCA1 / BRCA2 (HRD)","route":"/targets/brca/"},{"id":"parp","kind":"target","name":"PARP","route":"/targets/parp/"}],"institution":[{"id":"cruk-cambridge-centre","kind":"institution","name":"Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre / CRUK Cambridge Institute","route":"/institutions/cruk-cambridge-centre/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-vogelstein-cancer-genome-landscapes-science-2013","kind":"paper","name":"Cancer genome landscapes: about 140 driver genes, and each tumour needs only a handful","route":"/key-papers/paper-vogelstein-cancer-genome-landscapes-science-2013/"}],"term":[{"id":"driver-passenger-model","kind":"term","name":"Driver and passenger mutations: the refined somatic mutation theory","route":"/terms/driver-passenger-model/"}]}}