Dr James Hadfield is a molecular biologist and runs the genomics core facility at the University of Cambridge, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. He has many years experience in genomic technologies including NGS and microarrays. James thinks genomics is the next best thing since sliced bread.

James is a Blogger: Core Genomics

James is a Tweeter: @CRIgenomics

James runs lab: The CRUK Cambridge Institute Genomics Core

Short Bio: James received a Biology degree from the University of East Anglia in 1995. His career so far has leant towards technology development or implementation. In 1995 he developed a differential PCR test for ErbB2 copy number analysis at the same time as real-time PCR came along, a poor choice in hindsight!

Over the last 16 years he's worked at; the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital on ErbB2, Royal London on Diabetes genetics, the Cambridge Uni Department of Pathology on Immunology group and the John Innes Centre on Wheat disease resistance gene cloning and arrays. In 2000 he set up an Affy and spotted microarray facility at JIC, he co-founded the UK Affy user group, which is still going strong. At JIC he also won a Biotech competition, and hopes one-day to start a business. Although none of his ideas have come to anything yet!

In 2006 James moved to set up the genomics facility at CRI. The lab offers broad spectrum genomic services for scientists at CRI and Illumina next-gen sequencing for CRI, Gurdon, LMB and Plant Sciences.

James recieved his PhD from the University of East Anglia in 2014. His thesis "The application of genomic technologies to cancer and companion diagnostics" was passed without corrections after examination by Dr Mike Hubank (UCL Genomics Scientific Director) and Professor Garry John (Consultant and Honorary Professor of Clinical Biochemistry, Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and University of East Anglia Medical School.)

James has two kids and lives in Norfolk, which is a lot nearer the coast than Cambridge.

Publications by James Hadfield:

  • Hadfield & Eldridge. Multi-genome alignment for quality control and contamination screening of next-generation sequencing data. Frontiers in Genetics 2013.
  • Azizan et al. Somatic mutations in ATP1A1 and CACNA1D underlie a common subtype of adrenal hypertension. Nat Genet. 2013
  • Murtaza et al. Non-invasive analysis of acquired resistance to cancer therapy by sequencing of plasma DNA. Nature 2013
  • Idris et al. The role of high-throughput technologies in clinical cancer genomics. Expert Rev Mol Diagn 2013
  • Forshew et al. Noninvasive identification and monitoring of cancer mutations by targeted deep sequencing of plasma DNA. Sci Transl Med. 2012
  • Curtis et al. The genomic and transcriptomic architecture of 2000 breast tumours reveals novel subgroups. Nature 2012.
  • Holmes et al. Transducin-like enhancer protein 1 mediates estrogen receptor binding and transcriptional activity in breast cancer cells. PNAS 2012
  • Aldridge and Hadfield. Introduction to miRNA profiling technologies and cross-platform comparison. Methods Mol Biol 2012.
  • Massie et al. The androgen receptor fuels prostate cancer by regulating central metabolism and biosynthesis. EMBO J. 2011
  • Katsnelson et al. Genomes by the thousand. Nature 2010
  • Lynch et al. The cost of reducing starting RNA quantity for Illumina BeadArrays: A bead-level dilution experiment. Bioinformatics BMC Genomics 2010
  • Git et al. Systematic comparison of microarray profiling, real-time PCR, and next-generation sequencing technologies for measuring differential microRNA expression. RNA 2010
  • Curtis et al. The pitfalls of platform comparison: DNA copy number array technologies assessed. BMC Genomics 2009
  • Schmidt et al. ChIP-seq: using high-throughput sequencing to discover protein-DNA interactions. Methods 2009
  • Das et al. Piwi and piRNAs act upstream of an endogenous siRNA pathway to suppress Tc3 transposon mobility in the Caenorhabditis elegans germline. Molecular Cell 2008
  • Smith et al. STS markers for the wheat yellow rust resistance gene Yr5 suggest a NBS-LRR-type resistance gene cluster. Genome 2007
  • Marquardt et al. Additional targets of the Arabidopsis autonomous pathway members, FCA and FY. J Exp Bot 2006
  • Mitra et al. A Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase required for symbiotic nodule development: Gene identification by transcript-based cloning. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2004
  • Koebner et al. Large-scale mutagenesis directed at specific chromosomes in wheat. Genome 2001
  • Jennings et al. A differential PCR assay for the detection of c-erbB 2 amplification used in a prospective study of breast cancer. Mol Pathol. 1997