Welcome to the Helleday Laboratory

We aim to improve science, health and society! Our commitment does not stop with science at the basics; we bring our results all the way to the patients.

The Helleday Laboratory consists of a large team of mixed professions from industry and academia; basic molecular biologists, medicinal chemists, pharmacologists, biochemists and practicing clinicians, amongst others. What brings us together is our dedication to make our basic science discoveries reach all the way to helping patients stay healthy and with their loved ones.

The Helleday Laboratory mostly focuses on metabolism and DNA repair, and recently inflammation.

The Nobel Prize laureate Otto Warburg who pioneered modern cancer metabolism research once said that “The cure of human cancer will be the resultant of biochemistry of cancer and of biochemistry of man“. We could not agree more. With today’s molecular knowledge of altered metabolic pathways in cancer cells we are making real advances in progressing cancer treatments. Read about how we target glucose metabolism and nucleotide metabolism. Chemo- and radiotherapy is still the backbone of cancer treatments, and they work by causing damage to the cancer cells DNA. We know today that cancer cells have a high load of DNA damage as compared to normal cells. Read about DNA damage and repair in cancer. Previously, the Helleday lab has exploited this and shown that PARP inhibitors selectively kill recombination defective cancers, such as inherited breast- and ovarian cancer. This is now an approved treatment and help patients across the world.