Dr. Sam Corless
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr Samuel Corless joined the Earnshaw lab in February 2024 to develop small-molecules that target centromeric chromatin function.
Sam combines large-scale bioinformatic approaches with detailed experimental validation using molecular and cellular approaches. These skills were first established during his PhD with Professor Nick Gilbert at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied the role of DNA supercoiling in the structure and function of human chromatin. Subsequent postdoctoral work with Professor Sylvia Erhardt initially at the University of Heidelberg and then at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology led Sam to develop a big-data approach to locus-specific proteomics (REDPOINT) which he used to identify JQ1 at the first small-molecule directly targeting centromeric chromatin.
In 2024, Sam joined the Earnshaw lab to further characterise the molecular mechanism of centromere targeting by JQ1, and to use this information to develop class of small molecules designed to specifically modify local chromatin composition at centromeres.