Prof Gabriel Balmus

Group Leader

Identifying genetic and environmental factors involved in DNA damage, neurodegeneration and ageing in neurons

Condition

Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Motor neuron disease/ALS

Topics

Genetics, Immune system, Molecular mechanisms, Ageing

Techniques

Genomics, CRISPR

Biography

Interested in the mechanisms controlling the maintenance of nuclear and mitochondrial genomes in mature neurons, Prof Gabriel Balmus joined the UK DRI at Cambridge in 2018. Obtaining his PhD in Molecular and Integrative Physiology in 2013 at Cornell University, USA, he went on to complete postdoctoral training at the Gurdon Institute at University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. As Group Leader, Gabriel brings his wealth of expertise to research genomic instability in neurodegenerative diseases.

News

Key publications

Nature
Published
DNA damage burden causes selective CUX2 neuron loss in neuroinflammation
Authors
Laura Morcom, Wenlong Xia, Zhaoyang Xu, Yashika Awasthi, Celine Geywitz, Matthew O Ellis, Tomas Noli, Amel Zulji, Daniel Yamamoto, Gemma C Girdler, Li Kai, Keying Zhu, Mingming Wei, Xiao-Yan Tang, Kimberly K Hoi, Julio Gonzalez-Maya, Greg J Duncan, Adrien M Vaquie, Diana Gold Diaz, Riki Kawaguchi, Erdong Liu, Yu Sun, Denny Yang, Gregory D Jordan, I-Ling Lu, Staffan Holmqvist, Theresa Bartels, Katherine Ridley, Jennifer Ja-Yoon Choi, Santos J Franco, Eric J Huang, Ben Emery, Daniel Geschwind, Lucas Schirmer, Gabriel Balmus, Brian Popko, Stephen P J Fancy, David H Rowitch
DNA damage burden causes selective CUX2 neuron loss in neuroinflammation
Nature communications
Published
USP7 deubiquitinase stabilizes FAN1 to support DNA crosslink repair and suppress CAG repeat expansion
Authors
Giulio Collotta, Marco Gatti, Irina-Maria Ungureanu, Vanessa van Ackeren, Emilie Rannou, Francesca Vivalda, Diego Gomez Vieito, Keri M Fishwick, Christine von Aesch, Antonio Porro, Kyra Ungerleider, Ailin Heidari, Raphaël Guérois, Rachel J Harding, Sylvain Bischof, Gabriel Balmus, Alessandro A Sartori
USP7 deubiquitinase stabilizes FAN1 to support DNA crosslink repair and suppress CAG repeat expansion

Balmus Lab

Explore the work of the Balmus lab, aiming to identify neuroprotective mechanisms against genomic instability accrual in ageing and neurodegeneration. 

Balmus lab
Image of a brain organoid