Chris Bakal
He/Him
I am gay and I am a professor of cancer morphodynamics.//
I am the Professor of Cancer Morphodynamics and Team Leader at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, UK. My work combines single cell imaging, integrative ‘omic, and machine learning technologies. My lab has developed AI-based technologies to understand how changes in cell shape and size drive tumorigenesis and metastasis. This has led to the identification of new therapeutic targets. In addition, my group is developing tools that integrate imaging and multi-modal datasets to diagnose cancer earlier, more accurately, and in a personalized fashions.
I performed graduate work in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. In 2005, I began postdoctoral work with Norbert Perrimon at Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2006, I became an affiliate of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. While at Harvard and MIT, I worked with a number of groups, including those of George Church, Bonnie Berger, and Mike Yaffe to develop different computational technologies to study cell morphogenesis. As a postdoctoral fellow, I was awarded the Dorsett L. Spurgeon Award as the top postdoctoral fellow or junior faculty member at Harvard Medical School. In 2008, I received an Outstanding Research Award from Nature Biotechnology, and special commendations from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
I established my laboratory at the ICR in 2009. While at the ICR, I was named one of the top 2 young investigators by the European Association for Cancer Research in 2011. In 2013, I was awarded the Astra Zeneca Frank Rose Prize as the United Kingdom’s top young cancer researcher. In 2014, I was awarded the Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Prize in Systems Biology by the Council of Systems Biology. In 2015, I was awarded the Cancer Research UK Future Leaders Prize. I have been funded by the the Wellcome Trust, BBSRC, Cancer Research UK, and Stand Up to Cancer UK.
Outside of science, I am competitive track cyclist, a former national-level runner, and a former world-ranked downhill ski racer. I have run a mile in just over 4 min, and aim to compete in the Ironman World Championships.
https://www.icr.ac.uk/our-research/researchers-and-teams/professor-chris-bakal