Rate My Professor Jim Smith

Dr. Jim Smith, an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Pathology, Dunedin School of Medicine, within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago, holds dual qualifications of MBChB and BMedSc (Hons) from the same institution. He completed his BMedSc (Hons) in 2018 with the Chatterjee Laboratory, pioneering targeted DNA methylation editing in cell line models using CRISPR-based systems—the first such work in New Zealand. Since joining the laboratory as Aniruddha Chatterjee’s first summer student in 2016, Smith has balanced his clinical duties as a surgical registrar at Dunedin Hospital with ongoing research contributions. He received an Otago Medical School scholarship in 2018 for his honours project on targeted epigenomic editing.

Smith’s research specializations lie in cancer epigenomics, focusing on molecular profiling of tumours to develop clinical biomarkers. His current project, co-led with Associate Professor Aniruddha Chatterjee since 2021, involves genomic and epigenomic analysis of clinical prostate cancer samples to enhance screening, diagnosis, and disease monitoring for New Zealand men, ultimately aiming for a blood-based diagnostic test. In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious $40,000 Roche Translational Cancer Research Fellowship at the New Zealand Society of Oncology conference for this work. Notable publications include: “Genome-Scale DNA Methylome and Transcriptome Profiles of Prostate Cancer Recurrence After Prostatectomy” (Data, 2024); “Targeted DNA Methylation Editing Using an All-in-One System Establishes Paradoxical Activation of EBF3” (Cancers, 2024); “Genetic and Epigenetic Features of Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer and Their Emerging Applications” (International Review of Cell and Molecular Biology, 2024); “Neuroendocrine Neoplasms: Genetics and Epigenetics” (PET Clinics, 2023); and “Clinical Epigenetics: Recent Advances and Opportunities” (2025). Smith has also presented posters and talks, such as at Queenstown Research Week (2024) and a CRISPR workshop (2019), contributing to the field’s advancement in epigenetic tools and cancer biomarker discovery.