Visiting Professor Talk: How environmental mutagens and tumor promoters re-awaken dormant tumor cells
About the talk
Most of us carry cells with cancer-causing mutations and never get cancer. Why? In this talk, Prof. Allan Balmain shares decades of research, including a major 2025 finding, showing that mutations are just the first step. Prof. Balmain is one of the world’s leading cancer geneticists, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a Distinguished Professor at UC San Francisco. His work sits at the intersection of genetics, environmental exposures, and cancer risk, making it directly relevant to epidemiologists, whether you study chronic disease, environmental health, population genomics, or cancer prevention. This is a rare opportunity to hear from a researcher whose findings are reshaping how the field thinks about why cancer happens and what we can actually do about it.
Prof. Balmain’s talk will run approximately one hour, followed by an informal reception with light refreshments. It’s a great opportunity for attendees to connect with Prof. Balmain and continue the conversation.
About the presenter
Allan Balmain, PhD, is one of the world’s leading cancer geneticists, known for his pioneering work on how environmental exposures and genetic factors combine to drive cancer development. Born in Wick, Scotland, he studied Organic Chemistry at the University of Glasgow and completed postdoctoral work in France and Germany before holding positions at the University of Glasgow and Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute (formerly the Beatson Institute). He moved to the United States in 1997 and is now a Distinguished Professor at UCSF’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In 1983, Prof. Balmain established the first molecular link between chemical carcinogen exposure and the initiation of tumour development, showing that the types of mutations found in cancer genes depend on the specific agent responsible. His lab’s landmark 2025 research demonstrated that cells carrying thousands of mutations can lie dormant in normal tissue for a lifetime, and that it is environmental and biological promoters, not mutations alone, that ultimately trigger cancer. His work spans cancer genetics, mutational signatures, and tumour promotion, with direct implications for how we understand and prevent cancer at a population level. He is Co-Team Lead of the Cancer Grand Challenges PROMINENT consortium and a co-investigator on the Mutographs project.