Professor Greg Hannon is Director of our Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute(link is external). He and his team are studying tiny molecules in cells called ‘small RNAs’.

Small RNAs are involved in a virtually all cellular processes in some way. They’ve been shown to play a vital role in controlling when genes are turned on or off, acting like a genetic light switch.

Professor Hannon and his group are studying small RNAs to understand what role they might have in cancer – for example, whether they behave differently in cancer cells compared with healthy cells. They are also finding out whether targeting misbehaving small RNAs could lead to new avenue for future cancer treatments.