Gregory Hannon

Greg Hannon
FRS FMedSci
Born
Gregory James Hannon

(1964-05-05)5 May 1964
Died4 April 2026(2026-04-04) (aged 61)
EducationCase Western Reserve University (BA, PhD)
AwardsEMBO Member (2018)
Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2015)
Scientific career
Fields
WorkplacesUniversity of Cambridge
New York Genome Center
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
ThesisTrans-splicing of nematode pre-messenger RNA (1992)
Timothy W. Nilsen
Doctoral students
Other notable students
Lin He (postdoc)
Websitehannonlab.org

Gregory James Hannon (5 May 1964 – 4 April 2026) was a professor of molecular cancer biology and director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge. He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge while also serving as a director of cancer genomics at the New York Genome Center and an adjunct professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Career and research

Hannon was known for his contributions to small RNA biology, cancer biology, and mammalian genomics. He had a role in the discovery of oncogenes, beginning with work that led to the identification of CDK inhibitors and their links to cancer. More recently, his work focused on small RNA biology, which led to an understanding of the biochemical mechanisms and biological functions of RNA interference (RNAi). He developed widely used tools and strategies for manipulation of gene expression in mammalian cells and animals and generated genome-wide short hairpin RNA (shRNA) libraries that are available to the cancer community; he was among the first to demonstrate roles for microRNAs in cancer. His laboratory also discovered the piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway and linked this to transposon repression and the protection of germ cell genomes. His innovations included the development of selective re-sequencing strategies, broadly termed exome capture.

In 2017, Hannon was awarded a £20 million Cancer Grand Challenges award to unite the IMAXT team - a team of researchers from Switzerland, Ireland, Canada, the USA and the UK, with far ranging expertise from cancer biology and pathology to astronomy and even VR video game design. The team's aim is to create an interactive 3D map of cancer, which could be explored in virtual reality. The programme could transform the way researchers study cancer by providing unprecedented insight into how individual cells are arranged and how they interact to allow the tumour to grow.

In 2018, it was announced Hannon would guide the Functional Genomics Centre, a collaboration between Cancer Research UK and AstraZeneca. The centre, housed inside the Milner Therapeutics Institute, aims to act as a hub for genetic screens, cancer models, CRISPR tool design, and computational approaches to big data to understand genetic changes in cancer development and identify potential drug targets.

Awards and honours

References

  1. ↑ Greg Hannon's ORCID 0000-0003-4021-3898
  2. 1 2 "Greg Hannon – Hannon Laboratory". hannonlab.org. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  3. ↑ "Find people in the EMBO Communities". people.embo.org. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Professor Gregory Hannon FRS". Royal Society. Retrieved 10 April 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gregory Hannon publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  6. ↑ "Gregory J. Hannon, PhD - HHMI.org".
  7. ↑ Hannon, Gregory James (1992). Trans-splicing of nematode pre-messenger RNA (PhD thesis). Case Western Reserve University. OCLC 29529734. ProQuest 304045738.
  8. ↑ "Professor Greg Hannon leads £20 million Grand Challenge project to build 3D cancer tumour". 10 February 2017.
  9. ↑ "Professor Greg Hannon appointed new Director of Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute". 17 November 2017.
  10. ↑ "Hannon Lab @ New York Genome Center". nygenome.org. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  11. ↑ Brennecke, Julius; Lowe, Scott W. (25 June 2026). "Gregory J. Hannon (1964–2026)". Cell. 189 (13): 3839–3841. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2026.05.040. Retrieved 20 July 2026.
  12. ↑ Gregory Hannon publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  13. ↑ Gregory Hannon publications from Europe PubMed Central
  14. ↑ Hannon, Gregory J. (2002). "RNA interference". Nature. 418 (6894): 244–251. Bibcode:2002Natur.418..244H. doi:10.1038/418244a. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 12110901. S2CID 4426281. Closed access icon
  15. ↑ Bernstein, Emily; Caudy, Amy A.; Hammond, Scott M.; Hannon, Gregory J. (2001). "Role for a bidentate ribonuclease in the initiation step of RNA interference". Nature. 409 (6818): 363–366. Bibcode:2001Natur.409..363B. doi:10.1038/35053110. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 11201747. S2CID 4371481. Closed access icon
  16. ↑ Murchison, Elizabeth P.; Hannon, Gregory J. (2004). "miRNAs on the move: miRNA biogenesis and the RNAi machinery". Current Opinion in Cell Biology. 16 (3): 223–9. doi:10.1016/j.ceb.2004.04.003. PMID 15145345. Closed access icon
  17. ↑ cancergrandchallenges.org/teams/imaxt
  18. ↑ Kaiser, Jocelyn (9 February 2017). "U.K. cancer charity awards £71 million for four major research challenges". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  19. ↑ "Cancer Research UK announces four 'Grand Challenge' teams". www.timeshighereducation.com. 10 February 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  20. ↑ Walsh, Fergus (26 December 2018). "'Virtual tumour' new way to see cancer". Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  21. 1 2 Salter, Jessica (29 July 2019). "Researchers are using virtual reality in the fight against cancer". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  22. ↑ "Cancer Research UK and AstraZeneca launch world class functional genomics centre". Cancer Research UK. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  23. ↑ "AstraZeneca and CRUK launch Cambridge centre to accelerate cancer drug development". Cambridge Independent. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  24. ↑ "Gregory J. Hannon, Ph.D." pew.org. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  25. ↑ "Gregory J. Hannon". Rita Allen Foundation. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  26. ↑ "Press Release: Innovator Award Recipients from the DOD Breast Cancer Research Program; Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)". cdmrp.army.mil. Archived from the original on 19 October 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  27. ↑ "Greg Hannon awarded the 2005 AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 27 April 2005. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  28. ↑ "AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research". www.aacr.org. Archived from the original on 28 August 2019. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  29. ↑ "CSHL molecular biologist honored by National Academy of Sciences". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 17 January 2007. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  30. ↑ "2007 Prize Winners". Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  31. ↑ "Paul Marks Prize Recognizes Three Young Cancer Researchers". Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. 26 September 2007. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  32. ↑ "CSHL Professor Gregory Hannon elected to U.S. National Academy of Sciences". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 1 May 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  33. ↑ "Gregory Hannon". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  34. ↑ "Professor Gregory Hannon | The Academy of Medical Sciences". acmedsci.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  35. ↑ "The Academy of Medical Sciences announces new Fellows for 2017". University of Cambridge. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  36. ↑ "Find people in the EMBO Communities". people.embo.org. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  37. ↑ "Prof Greg Hannon elected to EMBO Membership". Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. 14 May 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  38. ↑ "Fellows| European Academy of Cancer Sciences". www.europeancanceracademy.eu. Archived from the original on 4 July 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  39. ↑ "AACR Announces Fellows of the AACR Academy Class of 2020 | AACR | News Releases". American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Retrieved 5 June 2020.

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