Dr James M Flanagan

Dr James Flanagan, completed his PhD in 2002 at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia, and has pursued postdoctoral work in Cancer Genetics, Epigenetics and Cancer Epigenetics.

Current work is aimed at investigating germline epigenetic alterations as a mechanism for carcinogenesis funded by Breast Cancer Campaign and Cancer Research UK.

Current projects include DNA methylation profiling to define tumour subgroups, identification of epigenetic risk markers in breast cancer patients, determining the prognostic value of epigenetic variability in somatic cells from patients in clinical trials and a recently funded project to investigate the use of DNA methylation for characterising pathogenicity of BRCA1 unknown variants.

 Recent Publication in Cancer Research attracts Media Attention!

 Media Attention attracts Blogs and Observations

Recent Publications:

1. Brennan K, Garcia-Closas M, Orr N, Fletcher O, Jones M, Ashworth A, Swerdlow A, KConFab Investigators, Riboli E, Vineis P, Dorronsoro M, Clavel-Chapelon F, Panico S, Onland-Moret NC, Trichopoulos D, Kaaks R, Khaw KT, Brown R, and FLANAGAN J.M. Intragenic ATM methylation in peripheral blood DNA as a biomarker of breast cancer risk. (Cancer Research. 2012 May 1;72(9):2304-2313.)
2. Shenker, N and FLANAGAN J.M. Intragenic DNA methylation: implications of this epigenetic mechanism for cancer research (Br J Cancer, 2012 Jan 17;106(2):248-53)
3. Dai W et al (15 Jun 2011). Systematic CpG islands methylation profiling of genes in the wnt pathway in epithelial ovarian cancer identifies biomarkers of progression-free survival. (Clin Cancer Res). 17:4052-4062.
4. FLANAGAN J.M., et al .DNA methylome of familial breast cancer identifies distinct profiles defined by mutation status (Am J Hum Genet. 2010 Mar 12;86(3):420-33.)
5. Wild, L. and FLANAGAN J.M.  Genome-wide hypomethylation in cancer may be a passive consequence of transformation  (Biochim Biophys Acta. 2010 Aug;1806(1):50-7).