Dr Jyoti Nangalia

Jyoti Nangalia

Dr Jyoti Nangalia

Somatic mutagenesis and clonal evolution in blood

Email: jn218@cam.ac.uk     |     Departmental Affiliation: Haematology

Research

Plain English: The Nangalia Group studies human blood samples across lifespan from development to ageing and precancer to cancer. They also have a particular interest in myeloproliferative neoplasms, a chronic form of blood cancer.

Research Focus: The Nangalia group is currently investigating:

  • Clonal trajectories to blood cancers. they are exploring when different types of blood cancers commence their growth during the lifetime of patients. Studying the somatic mutation phylogenies, selection landscape and clonal evolutionary dynamics across haematological diseases and cancers will better inform effective early intervention strategies.
  • Methylation dynamics in normal tissues: the lab is studying how the methylome changes over the human lifespan in healthy and diseased tissues using a phylogenetic approach.
  • Personalised cancer modelling: the group continues to enhance our blood cancer prognostic tools and build further predictive models for other cancers.

A family tree of blood production in a patient who developed an MPN at age 65, showing the acquisition of the disease causing JAK2 mutation over 50 years before disease presentation, changing the current paradigm for the evolution of this blood cancer. We use single cell derived clonal whole genome sequencing to trace the timing of blood cancer, and track its evolution over the life of individuals (image generated by Nick Williams).

Key Publications