Subsequently, she showed that the gene mutated in the Severe Combined Immunodeficient (SCID) mouse encodes the DNA dependent protein kinase, DNA-PKcs, which together with Ku forms the DNA-PK complex. In 2004 the Xrs mutants were shown to be mutated in Ku80, identifying the first gene involved in DNA non homologous end joining (NHEJ) as well as the development of the immune response. She isolated radiosensitive, DSB-repair defective (Xrs) mutants from the CHO cell line, which have been exploited by many colleagues to study DNA DSB. Prof Jeggo’s early work focused on studying DNA damage responses in lower organisms but subsequently focused on the process of DNA double strand break (DSB) repair in mammalian cells. She became a Professorial Fellow of the University of Sussex in 2003. In 1989 she moved to the MRC’s Cell Mutation Unit at the University of Sussex and when the Unit closed in 2001 became a founding member of the Genome Damage and Stability Centre (GDSC) at the University of Sussex. She then undertook Post Doctoral fellowships with John Cairns at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Miroslav Radman at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, before returning in 1980 to Robin Holliday’s laboratory and commencing work on the DNA damage responses in mammalian cells.

Jeggo graduated in microbiology at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London and obtained a PhD in Genetics in Robin Holliday’s laboratory at the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London.

Damage by P.J. Adams