Sankari Nagarajan

Sankari Nagarajan is a breast cancer research scientist investigating the transcriptional regulation of disease progression in breast cancers. After obtaining a prestigious and competitive PhD scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), she moved to the University of Göttingen, Germany. Her successful PhD research on the epigenetic reader protein BRD4 in ER+ breast cancers introduced the possibility of using Bromodomain and Extraterminal domain-containing protein (BET) inhibitors as a therapeutic strategy against breast cancers. This work was recognised with the Best PhD Award from the Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences.

As a Research Associate, she worked with Professor Jason Carroll at the CRUK Cambridge Institute. Using genome-wide CRISPR-based drug resistance screens and functional genomic approaches (ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, RNA-seq), she investigated a novel role for the SWI/SNF chromatin remodelling complex, and its subunit ARID1A, in controlling endocrine treatment response. She then moved to Manchester to start her first PI position in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Function. She was awarded a CRUK Career Establishment Award and a CRUK Biology to Prevention Award. She serves as a member of the scientific committee of the Lobular Breast Cancer UK charity, and strongly supports patient engagement activities, mentoring early-career students and postdocs, including women in academia and science with childcare responsibilities.