George Don Jones

Honorary Member 2021

Born, raised & educated in Worcestershire, Don entered the University of Leicester in 1979 to read ‘Chemistry with Biochemistry’. On graduating in 1982 he embarked upon an MSc by research in ‘Carbohydrate Chemistry’ at the University of Birmingham, then returned to Leicester in 1984 to undertake a PhD studying ‘The Direct Effects of Ionising Radiation on DNA’ under the supervision of Professor Martyn Symonds (FRS) and Dr (now Prof) Paul Cullis in the Department of Chemistry; publishing several papers including two in Nature investigating ‘electron transfer from protein to DNA in irradiated chromatin’.

After graduating in 1987, Don undertook three post-doctoral positions. Firstly, with Prof Peter O’Neill at the then MRC Radiobiology Unit at Harwell studying strand break mechanisms in polynucleotides and DNA. Then in 1991 he swapped the rolling countryside of Oxfordshire for the beaches of Southern California to work with Prof John Ward in the Dept. of Radiology, University of California San Diego where he investigated the radiosensitising effects of halogenated pyrimidines and mechanisms underpinning complex DNA damage formation. Finally, in 1994 he joined the lab of Prof Michael Weinfeld at the Cross Cancer Institute at the University of Alberta in Canada (where he well recalls waiting for the morning bus at temperatures of -40oC!!!) to investigate the DNA damaging mechanisms of the bioreductive agent Tirapazamine.

In 1995, Don returned to the UK, indeed to Leicester, to take up a research fellowship in the joint MRC-University ‘Centre for Mechanisms of Human Toxicity’. Whilst there Don established his own research group focusing novel ways of measuring DNA damage, successfully securing funding from the MRC, MAFF, CR UK and the EU. Following this, in 2000 Don was appointed Lecturer in the then Department of Oncology (now the Leicester Cancer Research Centre (LCRC)), being promoted to Senior lecturer in 2002, Reader in 2007 and finally to a Personal Chair in 2016. 

Whilst at Leicester Don’s research interests have focussed on investigating mechanisms, measurement and consequences of radiation and drug-induced damage to DNA as a means of enhancing cancer treatment. This led to over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts & articles accepted for publication. He’s internationally recognised as an expert in measures of radiation-induced DNA damage notably through his use of the Comet assay. He’s invited to speak at radiation conferences world-wide (including recently in Hawaii – for the third time!). He’s been President of the UK’s Association for Radiation Research, the European Radiation Research Society and most recently the US Radiation Research Society. He’s an Honorary member of the Royal College of Radiologists and has served on the council of the International Association for Radiation Research.

Up until his retirement at the end of 2020, Don led the Cancer Radiation Research group in the LCRC and had successfully supervised over 20 postgraduate research students (both PhD and MD), and from 2014 onwards he was the convenor of the Department’s MSc in ‘Molecular Pathology and Therapeutics of Cancer’. 

Upon retiring Don was appointed Professor Emeritus at Leicester and continues to be research-active, most recently investigating the radiogenic mechanisms underpinning the ‘FLASH effect’.

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