Rate My Professor James Smith

Dr Jim Smith serves as an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Otago. He is a dual MBChB and BMedSc(Hons) graduate, having completed his honours degree in 2018 with the Chatterjee Laboratory by establishing targeted DNA methylation editing of cell line models in New Zealand using CRISPR-based systems. With several years' experience in the field of cancer epigenomics, he works as a junior doctor and surgical registrar at Dunedin Hospital alongside his research commitments. He remains an active member of the Chatterjee Laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine.

James Smith's academic interests lie in molecular profiling of human cancers aimed at clinical biomarker development. His research involves genomic and epigenomic profiling of clinical prostate cancer samples to identify molecular biomarkers that improve prostate cancer screening, diagnosis, and disease monitoring in New Zealand populations. In 2024, he was awarded the Roche Translational Cancer Research Fellowship worth $40,000. Key publications include: Dutta et al. (2025) 'Liquid biopsy based DNA methylation biomarker panel for facilitating minimally invasive prostate cancer detection' in Proceedings of the Genetics Otago Annual Symposium; Smith et al. (2024) 'Genome-scale DNA methylome and transcriptome profiles of prostate cancer recurrence after prostatectomy' in Data 9(12):150; Smith (2024) poster 'Developing a multi-omic signature for prediction of early prostate cancer recurrence following radical prostatectomy' at Queenstown Research Week Cancer Meeting; Banerjee et al. (2024) 'Targeted DNA methylation editing using an all-in-one system establishes paradoxical activation of EBF3' in Cancers 16(5):898; and Zhang et al. (2024) 'Genetic and epigenetic features of neuroendocrine prostate cancer and their emerging applications' in International Review of Cell and Molecular Biology Vol. 383. These contributions highlight his role in advancing epigenomic research in oncology.