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Colleagues recall career of the Director of world-leading research centre
Posted on behalf of: Genome Damage and Stability Centre
Last updated: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Professor Tony Carr
Scientific breakthroughs and other tales from the lab were revisited as colleagues paid tribute to Professor Tony Carr, who is retiring as Director of the University of Sussex Genome Damage and Stability Centre (GDSC).
Professor Carr was instrumental in setting up the Genome Damage and Stability Centre, which opened in 2003 and has since become a world-leading research laboratory into the genetic causes of cancer and human disease.
He joined Sussex in 1982 as a PhD student in the laboratory of Sir Paul Nurse (who shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2001).
Over the decades, Professor Carr’s research, involving pioneering studies in yeast genetics, has transformed our understanding of how cells respond to DNA replication stress – processes critical in maintaining genome stability and preventing cancer and hereditary genetic disease.
Sir Paul and Professor Alan Lehmann CBE – former Chairman of the GDSC – were among those who paid tribute to Professor Carr at their annual scientific retreat, praising his ‘brilliance’ and the ‘remarkable results’ he has achieved during his career.
At the event, Professor Carr thanked Sir Paul, Professor Lehmann and the University of Arizona’s Professor Ted Weinert for their inspiration and mentorship.