Research Summary Dr. Nickolas Papadopoulos is internationally known as a co‐discoverer of the genetic basis of the predisposition to hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC), one of the most common hereditary forms of cancer, earlier in his career. He is known for the development of diagnostic tests and he is considered an expert in cancer genetics and diagnostics. He was part of the interdisciplinary team that was first to sequence all of the protein coding genes, determine genetic alterations and construct expression profiles of four common tumor types. Later he was involved in the identification of genetic alterations that drive tumorigenesis in multiple tumor types. Noteworthy discoveries he has made include the identification of novel mutations in chromatin remodeling genes in ovarian clear cell carcinomas and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Currently, he is focused on translating the genetic information derived from cancer genome analyses to clinical applications in early detection, diagnosis and monitoring of cancer. He is a co-developer of sensitive methods for the detection of tumor DNA in liquid biopsy. Recently, he developed CancerSEEK, a blood test for the early detection of multiple cancers. He is also the co-founder of two companies that develop diagnostics for cancer.