Mutagenesis in Medicine
Early Cancer Institute, University of Cambridge

Dr. Xueqing Zou

Postdoctoral Fellow

I am a computational scientist fascinated by discovering mutational signatures in cancers and understanding the physiology of different mutational signatures. My work involves using advanced statistical methods and machine learning algorithms to analyze large whole-genome sequencing data from cancer samples. I collaborate closely with experimentalists and clinicians to bridge the genomic data analysis with biological knowledge.

Published Works

  • Zou, X., Koh, G. C. C., Nanda, A. S., Degasperi, A., Urgo, K., Roumeliotis, T. I., Agu, C. A., Badja, C., Momen, S., Young, J., Amarante, T. D., Side, L., Brice, G., Perez-Alonso, V., Rueda, D., Gomez, C., Bushell, W., Harris, R., Choudhary, J. S., Genomics England Research Consortium, … Nik-Zainal, S. (2021). A systematic CRISPR screen defines mutational mechanisms underpinning signatures caused by replication errors and endogenous DNA damage. Nature cancer, 2(6), 643–657. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-021-00200-0
  • Degasperi, A., Amarante, T. D., Czarnecki, J., Shooter, S., Zou, X., Glodzik, D., Morganella, S., Nanda, A. S., Badja, C., Koh, G., Momen, S. E., Georgakopoulos-Soares, I., Dias, J. M. L., Young, J., Memari, Y., Davies, H., & Nik-Zainal, S. (2020). A practical framework and online tool for mutational signature analyses show inter-tissue variation and driver dependencies. Nature cancer, 1(2), 249–263. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-020-0027-5
  • Koh, G., Zou, X., & Nik-Zainal, S. (2020). Mutational signatures: experimental design and analytical framework. Genome biology, 21(1), 37. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-020-1951-5
  • Kucab, J. E., Zou, X., Morganella, S., Joel, M., Nanda, A. S., Nagy, E., Gomez, C., Degasperi, A., Harris, R., Jackson, S. P., Arlt, V. M., Phillips, D. H., & Nik-Zainal, S. (2019). A Compendium of Mutational Signatures of Environmental Agents. Cell, 177(4), 821–836.e16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.03.001
  • Zou, X., Owusu, M., Harris, R., Jackson, S. P., Loizou, J. I., & Nik-Zainal, S. (2018). Validating the concept of mutational signatures with isogenic cell models. Nature communications, 9(1), 1744. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04052-8
  • Zou, X., Morganella, S., Glodzik, D., Davies, H., Li, Y., Stratton, M. R., & Nik-Zainal, S. (2017). Short inverted repeats contribute to localized mutability in human somatic cells. Nucleic acids research, 45(19), 11213–11221. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkx731
  • Davies, H., Glodzik, D., Morganella, S., Yates, L. R., Staaf, J., Zou, X., Ramakrishna, M., Martin, S., Boyault, S., Sieuwerts, A. M., Simpson, P. T., King, T. A., Raine, K., Eyfjord, J. E., Kong, G., Borg, Å., Birney, E., Stunnenberg, H. G., van de Vijver, M. J., Børresen-Dale, A. L., … Nik-Zainal, S. (2017). HRDetect is a predictor of BRCA1 and BRCA2 deficiency based on mutational signatures. Nature medicine, 23(4), 517–525. https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4292
  • Morganella, S., Alexandrov, L. B., Glodzik, D., Zou, X., Davies, H., Staaf, J., Sieuwerts, A. M., Brinkman, A. B., Martin, S., Ramakrishna, M., Butler, A., Kim, H. Y., Borg, Å., Sotiriou, C., Futreal, P. A., Campbell, P. J., Span, P. N., Van Laere, S., Lakhani, S. R., Eyfjord, J. E., … Nik-Zainal, S. (2016). The topography of mutational processes in breast cancer genomes. Nature communications, 7, 11383. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11383
  • Nik-Zainal, S., Davies, H., Staaf, J., Ramakrishna, M., Glodzik, D., Zou, X., Martincorena, I., Alexandrov, L. B., Martin, S., Wedge, D. C., Van Loo, P., Ju, Y. S., Smid, M., Brinkman, A. B., Morganella, S., Aure, M. R., Lingjærde, O. C., Langerød, A., Ringnér, M., Ahn, S. M., … Stratton, M. R. (2016). Landscape of somatic mutations in 560 breast cancer whole-genome sequences. Nature, 534(7605), 47–54. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17676

Contact Us

Prof. Serena Nik-Zainal
Early Cancer Institute
University of Cambridge
Hutchison Research Centre
Box 197
Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Cambridge
United Kingdom
CB2 0XZ

sn206@cam.ac.uk