Bjorn Bakker

Bjorn was awarded a PhD from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands for work on chromosomal instability (CIN) and karyotype evolution in cancer, using a combination of mouse models, cell lines, and computational modelling. During his PhD he helped to develop a novel single-cell sequencing platform for karyotyping, and showed that CIN accelerates the onset of tumorigenesis in predisposed backgrounds. Tumours driven by CIN ultimately evolve towards tissue-specific karyotype landscapes, and exist in a karyotype equilibrium that can shift upon changes in the environment, for example during metastasis or therapy.

In November 2019, Bjorn joined the group of Professor Charles Swanton and is currently studying the dynamics of CIN and whole genome doubling in lung adenocarcinoma. This will improve our understanding of tumour evolution trajectories and intratumour copy number heterogeneity, which could help to improve patient risk stratification.