About SAM
Bio
Sam McKee is a research scientist in cancer genomics and DNA repair. He is a doctoral researcher at the University of Reading in the McGuffin lab, and researching genomic medicine with the University of Cambridge and Addenbrookes Hospital. He is in the final stage of his first doctorate in history and philosophy of science at Manchester Metropolitan University.
He develops theoretical and computational frameworks to explain and predict genomic instability, focusing on how DNA repair networks fail under stress in cancer and radiation biology and models genomic instability as a universal failure mode under extreme biological stress, using cancer and radiation/space-relevant conditions as boundary cases to predict repair collapse and its consequences. He builds mechanistic theories of genomic stability that unify cancer evolution and extreme-environment biology, translating mathematical models of DNA repair failure into predictive tools for medicine and human spaceflight risk.
Sam is a polymath with 9 qualifications across 4 disciplines. He gained a BSc in genetics at Cambridge University, a BA (Hons) in theology at Chester University followed by an MRes. He has a second master’s degree in molecular biology from Birkbeck and two qualifications in education. He is part of Cambridge University's postgraduate Genomic Medicine program out of Addenbrookes Hospital and the School of Clinical Medicine. He is currently finishing a PhD in history and philosophy of science, alongside his funded PhD in biomedicine. Upon completion, he will be among the most educated people in Britain. Working with ISSET, he oversaw a winning team which had its experiment flown to space by SpaceX to be conducted by astronauts on the International Space Station in June 2023.
Sam speaks regularly to both students and adults on biology, aspects of religion and science, and history/philosophy of science. He also facilitates public debates around these disciplines for secondary school and university audiences. He is a popular writer for media outlets such as The Conversation, The Freethinker, and the Institute for Art and Ideas (IaI). His work has been published all over the world in publications like Newsweek and multiple science and space outlets. He runs The Polymath World Channel - YouTube where he interviews extraordinary people at the forefront of their academic disciplines, including astronauts.
Sam is a passionate Futurist and invests much time and effort in STEM education and investing in the next generation, serving as a university ambassador for The Genetics Society UK, as well as on the committees of The Mars Society UK and Christians in Science. He is an associate at the Royal Society of Biology. He is a fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, is pursuing membership of the British Society for Genomic Medicine, and part of the International Society for Gastrointestinal Hereditary Tumours (InSiGHT). In the humanities, he is part of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science, International Society for Science and Religion, The European Society for the Study of Science and Theology, and The Centre for Theology and the Natural Sciences. He is part of the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine; an academic group for the history of physics, and a member of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). He is an ISCAST fellow. He is the Assistant Editor of the academic journal Science and Christian Belief as of 2026.
He is married with three young daughters and is based between London and Oxford.
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Sam McKee
