Surinder Sahota's Biography

Surinder Sahota, Reader, University of Southampton

Dr Sahota is Reader in Immunogenetics in the Cancer Sciences Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton one of the Russell Group of elite universities in the UK, and placed in the Top 10 Universities in the recent UK REF2014 exercise. He graduated in Biochemistry and obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of London UK followed by an appointment as Lecturer and Post-doctoral Scholar in Microbial Genetics at the University of California Los Angeles, USA. Subsequently, Dr Sahota switched interest focus to cancer and undertook research at the University of London and then at University of Southampton, obtaining his current Faculty position. Early research work in Cancer Sciences, Southampton focused on developing immunogenetics to profile pathogenesis and progression in B-lymphocyte malignancy, with a special focus on multiple myeloma and Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia. More recent work has utilised genome wide whole exome sequencing to examine mutations to define B-cell tumour origins and behaviour, seeking to link genomic mutations with functional outcomes. The group is also interested in defining tumour-associated antigens, and in targeted immunotherapy using DNA vaccines. Dr. Sahota is an invited speaker to national and international conferences, and peer-reviews for a number of leading journals and research grant awarding bodies in Europe and USA. Dr. Sahota is also an established member of the European Myeloma Network, and jointly co-ordinated successful funding bids to establish multi-centre research networks under the EU FP6/7 Programmes.