Rate My Professor Francis Barr

Professor Francis Barr serves as the EP Abraham Professor of Mechanistic Cell Biology and Head of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, roles he assumed in 2011 and 2019, respectively. He is also a Professorial Fellow in Biochemistry at Trinity College, Oxford. Before joining Oxford, Barr was a Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich and the North West Cancer Research Professor at the University of Liverpool. His research in the Department of Biochemistry, part of the Medical Sciences Division, centers on the molecular mechanisms of cell division, encompassing mitosis, cytokinesis, and spatial-temporal control, as well as membrane trafficking regulated by Rab GTPases. The Barr lab integrates cell biology, structural biology, and computational modeling to dissect how cells accurately segregate chromosomes, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, and Golgi apparatus during division. Dysregulation of these pathways, particularly involving interlinked networks of Aurora protein kinases and PPP family phosphatases such as PP1, PP2A, and PP6, is linked to human cancers and other diseases, informing potential therapeutic targets like amplified Aurora A kinase in melanoma tumors.