Rate My Professor Brian Huntly

Professor Brian Huntly serves as Head of the Department of Haematology and Professor of Leukaemia Stem Cell Biology at the University of Cambridge. A clinician-scientist, he practices as a Consultant Haematologist at Cambridge University Hospitals and is Principal Investigator at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. He studied Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, trained in Haematology in Dundee and Cambridge, earned his PhD in Cambridge, and conducted post-doctoral research at Harvard. Huntly holds membership in the Royal College of Physicians and fellowship in the Royal College of Pathologists. His career milestones include receiving the EHA-José Carreras Young Investigator Award, establishing his independent research group, and assuming leadership roles such as Co-Interim Director of the CRUK Cambridge Centre, Co-Lead of the Cambridge Haematological Malignancies Virtual Institute, Vice President of the European Hematology Association, member of its Executive Board and Research Committee, and Chair of its Fellowships and Grants Committee. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

The Huntly laboratory investigates leukaemia stem cell biology and leukaemogenesis, focusing on how normal haematopoietic stem and progenitor functions are disrupted in the stepwise development of acute myeloid leukaemia and other malignancies like lymphomas, particularly through transcriptional and epigenetic changes. The group integrates functional assays, genomic and proteomic analyses using mouse models, cell lines, and primary human tumour samples to uncover disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets. Seminal publications include Huntly et al. (Cancer Cell, 2004), showing distinct stem and progenitor origins for chronic and acute myeloid leukaemia; Dawson et al. (Nature, 2011), establishing BET inhibitors as therapy for MLL-fusion leukaemia; Horton et al. (Nature Cell Biology, 2017), demonstrating malignant properties in lymphoid progenitors from Crebbp loss; Gozdecka et al. (Nature Genetics, 2018), revealing non-catalytic UTX tumour suppression; Yun et al. (Nature Genetics, 2021), dissecting mutational synergies in leukaemia; Agrawal-Singh et al. (Blood, 2023), identifying the HOXA9 repressive complex; and Lara-Astiaso et al. (Nature Genetics, 2023), characterizing chromatin factor roles in haematopoiesis.