Rachel Bhatt

Rachel Bhatt develops computational methods for extracting and interpreting mutational signatures from cancer genome sequencing data. Her research contributed to the characterization of over 70 validated mutational signatures in the COSMIC database, establishing the catalogue of mutational processes that leave distinct genomic footprints including DNA repair deficiencies, exogenous carcinogens, and endogenous mutational processes. She has developed tools for decomposing tumor mutational spectra into contributing signatures to identify the DNA repair deficiencies and mutational processes active in individual cancers. Her signature analysis work has provided biological mechanistic insight into drivers of cancer genome instability.