N. Asger Jakobsen

I studied Medicine at the University of Cambridge, before moving to Oxford Medical School where I qualified in 2014. After working as a junior doctor, I joined Prof Paresh Vyas’s laboratory in the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit as an MRC Clinical Research Training Fellow.

My DPhil research focused on clonal haematopoiesis (CH), a pre-cancerous condition that is common in healthy older people and is associated with a risk of leukaemia. CH occurs when blood stem cells acquire mutations that confer a selective advantage, leading to the growth of an expanded clone. During my DPhil, I established the MARCH Study to collect bone marrow and blood samples from individuals undergoing hip replacement surgery, in collaboration with surgical teams at NDORMS and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre. This has made it possible to study clonal haematopoiesis in healthy older individuals, where samples are otherwise difficult to obtain. 

We have developed single-cell methods for analysing genotype along with gene expression and epigenetic readouts, and are using these to study the consequences of mutations on blood stem and progenitor cells. This work gives us clues for why mutant cells have an advantage, suggesting a role for inflammation in progression of these clones towards leukaemia.

In 2024, I moved to Prof Ross Chapman’s laboratory where I am investigating physiological sources of DNA damage in haematopoietic stem cells.