Sean Flynn

Dr Sean Flynn

BA (Mod) PhD

Sean is a Junior Research Fellow and was previously a PhD student at Wolfson College. His research at the CRUK Cambridge Institute focuses on DNA structure and gene regulation.

Sean Flynn

Sean graduated with a BA in Human Genetics from Trinity College Dublin in 2013, and received his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2018. For his PhD with Professor Mario de Bono at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, he identified genes and pathways that function in the nervous system using the small model organism C. elegans.

In 2020 he joined Professor Shankar Balasubramanian’s lab as a postdoctoral research associate at the CRUK Cambridge Institute, and in 2021 he was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship to investigate the biological functions of alternative DNA structures in the human genome.

In addition to the well-known double helix, DNA can form alternative structures such as the 4-stranded quadruplex. Although most of our DNA adopts a double helix, thousands of sites quadruplex structures form in our genome, like knots on a piece of string. However, their functions are not well understood. Sean is interested in understanding the role of quadruplex DNA in basic biological processes and identifying mechanisms by which it regulates gene expression.

Sean is based at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, where he uses genetic and genomics methods to study G-quadruplexes in human cells. He also works closely with colleagues at the Department of Chemistry.

What's on

Professor Helle Porsdam

Humanities Society: Science as a Cultural Human Right

24/05/2022 at 17.45

Join Professor Helle Porsdam for an evening talk which focuses on the right to science – a little known but potentially powerful human right.

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Ellie Bladon, PhD student in the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge

Science Society: Parental care: an evolutionary case of “use it or lose it”

27/05/2022 at 17.45

Phenotypic plasticity enables animals to flexibly adjust their behaviour to their social environment – sometimes through the expression of adaptive traits that have not been exhibited for several generations. The ability to revive these ‘ghosts of adaptations past’ could prove beneficial for populations living in a changing world.

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Decorative image.

Working on Your Dissertation

28/05/2022 at 10.00

This workshop will cover several aspects of formatting and proofreading a dissertation.

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Kill or Cure poster

Art exhibition: 'Kill or Cure'

28/05/2022 at 10.00

Lethal or life-giving? Wolfson's exciting contemporary art exhibition explores the potential of animals, plants, and substances from the natural world to ‘Kill’ and/or ‘Cure’ (open to the public Saturday and Sundays, 10am - 5pm).

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Daniel Phillips playing violin and Victor Wang playing Piano

Music Society Lunchtime Concert: Daniel Phillips & Victor Wang

28/05/2022 at 13.30

Join us live in the Lee Hall for an hour-long lunchtime concert of violin and piano, performed by Daniel Phillips and Victor Wang.

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