Rate My Professor Annika Seddon

Seddon's research specializes in the intersection of inflammation, ageing, cancer, and epigenetics. She investigates how oxidants from immune cells and mitochondria, such as hydrogen peroxide and glycine chloramine, inactivate DNA methyltransferase enzymes, depleting S-adenosyl methionine and causing site-specific DNA methylation changes linked to cancer pathways like proliferation, differentiation, autophagy, and apoptosis. Her Cancer Society New Zealand-funded three-year $300,000 postdoctoral fellowship examines mitochondrial dysfunction's role in epigenetic alterations and differentiation of haematopoietic stem cells, particularly in acute myeloid leukaemia, testing mitochondria-targeted therapies to enhance treatment responses. Additional projects include the Canterbury Health, Ageing and Life Course study, identifying early immune and metabolic markers of age-related decline, funded by the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation, and the effects of bacterial lipopolysaccharides from colorectal cancer patient guts on immune cell oxidants and epigenetic regulation. Key publications include Das et al., 'Regulation of the epigenetic landscape by immune cell oxidants' (Free Radic. Biol. Med., 2021); Seddon et al., 'Oxidant inactivation of DNA methyltransferase in T-lymphoma cells' (Epigenetics Chromatin, 2021); Seddon et al., 'Widespread genomic de novo DNA methylation occurs following oxidant exposure' (Hum. Mol. Genet., 2022); Damiano et al., 'Chronic inflammation to cancer: The impact of oxidative stress on DNA methylation' (Front. Biosci. Landmark, 2025); and Seddon et al., 'Inflammation and DNA methylation in Alzheimer’s disease: Mechanisms of epigenetic remodelling by immune cell oxidants in the ageing brain' (Redox Report, 2024). Her contributions aim to uncover novel therapeutic targets for cancer and age-related disorders.