# Ludmil B. Alexandrov

Source: https://onco.cc/people/ludmil-alexandrov/  
OnCo record `ludmil-alexandrov` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Created the mathematical framework for extracting mutational signatures from cancer genomes and the COSMIC signature catalogue.

## Summary

Ludmil Alexandrov developed the computational method that decomposes cancer genomes into mutational signatures and led the 2013 Nature analysis of 7,000 cancers and the 2020 Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes catalogue, which together define the COSMIC signatures used to infer causes such as tobacco, UV and APOBEC. His laboratory studies signatures of environmental exposures and the origins of cancer in never-smokers.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Tags: genomics; mutational-signatures; computational
- Role: Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Bioengineering, UC San Diego
- Specialisms: Mutational signatures; Cancer genomics; Computational biology; Carcinogen exposure

## Sources

- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Alexandrov%20LB%5BAuthor%5D%20mutational%20signatures

## Connected records

- technologies: [Whole-exome & whole-genome sequencing](https://onco.cc/technologies/wes-wgs/)
- institutions: [UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center](https://onco.cc/institutions/ucsd-moores/)
- key papers: [Cancer genome landscapes: about 140 driver genes, and each tumour needs only a handful](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-vogelstein-cancer-genome-landscapes-science-2013/), [Martincorena: normal sun-exposed skin is a patchwork of cancer-mutation clones](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-martincorena-somatic-mutations-normal-skin-science-2015/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/ludmil-alexandrov.json