Biography
Darren Monckton obtained a BSc in biochemistry from the University of Bath (1989) and a PhD in human genetics from the University of Leicester (1992). He did postdoctoral research in Baylor College of Medicine and MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he was the Muscular Dystrophy Association Sammy Davies Junior Neuromuscular Disease Research Fellow. In 1996 he took up a lectureship in genetics at the University of Glasgow, where he was also the recipient of a Lister Institute Research Fellowship. He is currently Professor of Human Genetics and teaches genetics on a range of courses, and leads an active research team investigating the basis and consequences of genetic instability in human disease. In particular, his team are defining the role of DNA repair and somatic expansion as a major driver of pathology in myotonic dystrophy and Huntington disease, and as a novel therapeutic target. He has presented more than 260 invited seminars and lectures, including the Genetics Society Balfour Lecture (1999) and the Tenovus Medal Lecture (2008), and many to patient support groups. He is a scientific advisor to the Myotonic Dystrophy Support Group (UK), the European Dystrophia Myotonica Association, and the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation (USA), and was the Muscular Dystrophy UK 2017 Scientist of the Year, received the 2019 Huntington Disease Society of America Research Award and the Steinert Award of the International Myotonic Dystrophy Consortium in 2024