Draft:Payam A. Gammage

Payam A. Gammage is a British scientist, Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute (Formerly Beatson Institute) and Professor of Mitochondrial Biology at the University of Glasgow.

Education
Gammage received his M.Sci. degree in Neuroscience from University College London, where he developed an interest in mitochondrial biology during initial research training at the Institute of Neurology. As a graduate student at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit, he went on to receive his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, and was appointed as a MRC Career Development Fellow to pursue postdoctoral training within the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit.

Following postdoctoral training, Gammage was appointed as a Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute (now Scotland Institute) in 2019, where he founded the Mitochondrial Oncogenetics Laboratory. He holds a joint appointment as Professor of Mitochondrial Biology at the University of Glasgow.

Research
Gammage has pioneered the adaptation of genome engineering tools to manipulate mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in mammals. His inventions in this field are described in highly cited papers detailing the development of engineered genome editing tools capable of manipulating mtDNA across entire organs , with both clinical and experimental application. Together with Dr Eduard Reznik, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, he discovered the recurrence and selective pressures operating on mtDNA mutations, found in approximately half of all cancers, and how these are associated with significantly improved patient outcomes in the context of colorectal cancer. He further discovered the impact of recurrent mtDNA mutation in melanoma, likely explaining a significant proportion of the Warburg Effect and providing new insights into the immunological response to cancer immunotherapies.

Awards & Recognition
Gammage was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant in 2021. He is the recipient of a National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute MERIT Award (R37) and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Young Investigator Award. Gammage currently serves on the Editorial Board of The Royal Society Open Science.