Rate My Professor Anne Donaldson

Professor Anne Donaldson is Chair in Chromosome Maintenance and holds a Personal Chair at the University of Aberdeen, where she is based in the Institute of Medical Sciences within the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition. She obtained her BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge in 1989 and PhD from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge in 1994. Her postdoctoral work as a NATO/SERC fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle, initiated her research into DNA replication. Donaldson established her independent research group as a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Dundee, joining the University of Aberdeen in 2003. At Aberdeen, she leads the Chromosome & Cellular Dynamics Section, which includes six research groups investigating chromosome dynamics, and directs the university's Cancer PhD Programme bridging basic and clinical cancer research.

Professor Donaldson's research elucidates the molecular controls governing DNA replication and chromosome maintenance, critical for precise genome duplication and safeguarding against daily DNA damage. Employing the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism and validating findings in human cells, her laboratory utilizes sophisticated proteomic, biochemical, genomic, and microscopy approaches to dissect replication origin firing, fork progression, nascent DNA protection at stalled forks, and repair mechanisms, with a focus on Rif1 protein function and protein phosphatase 1-mediated dephosphorylation. This research informs novel cancer therapeutic strategies. Selected publications encompass 'The human RIF1-Long isoform interacts with BRCA1 to promote recombinational fork repair under DNA replication stress' (Nature Communications, 2025), 'Replication timing maintains the global epigenetic state in human cells' (Science, 2021), 'Protection of nascent DNA at stalled replication forks is mediated by phosphorylation of RIF1 intrinsically disordered region' (eLife, 2022), and 'Checkpoint phosphorylation sites on budding yeast Rif1 protect nascent DNA from degradation by Sgs1-Dna2' (PLoS Genetics, 2023). She has obtained substantial funding, including a £2.475 million Wellcome Trust Discovery Award for eight years to explore DNA replication control by protein dephosphorylation and a £1.561 million Cancer Research UK Programme Award investigating Rif1's role in replication inhibition recovery. Donaldson organized the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's Eukaryotic DNA Replication & Genome Maintenance meeting (2014–2019), contributed to the 2022 UK DNA Replication meeting organizing committee, and serves on the Wellcome Trust Discovery Award Interview Committee. Her work has garnered over 2,000 citations, influencing the field of eukaryotic chromosome biology.