Martin Taylor

Martin Taylor is Professor of Evolutionary Genomics at the University of Edinburgh, based at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer where he leads the Theme on Biomedical Genomics. He trained in genomics and computational biology in Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge before returning to Edinburgh to start his research group in 2010. A major focus of his research has been to understand the processes that lead to the generation of new mutations, both in the inherited germline and in the somatic cells of the body. His key discoveries include the demonstration that most mutations from DNA damage arise through replication over persistent damage rather than erroneous repair, and that competition between biochemical activities can target mutations to the most functionally important regions of a genome.