Professor El-Khamisy is a pharmacist by training and currently holds a Wellcome Trust investigator,  studying the mechanisms underpinning human disorders arising from defective DNA repair.  His work led to the conceptual hypothesis that fixing single-strand breaks, the most abundant form of endogenous DNA breakage, is critical for the genetic integrity in post-mitotic tissue. He and his group also study how cancer cells respond to therapies that cause DNA breaks such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, with the view to develop new strategies for diagnosis and treatment.

Professor El-Khamisy’s specific aim is to address the impact of oxidative and protein-linked DNA breaks on pathological and age-associated organ dysfunction. His group use a combined biochemical and genetic approach coupled with the utilisation of yeast, mouse and zebrafish as model organisms.