Cell Proliferation and Death

Studies on the mechanisms that controll cell proliferation and cell death, and how these are deregulated in cancer cells are underway in a number of laboratories.  This work involves cross-disciplinary, collaborative projects spanning multiple departments within the College, as well as the MRC Toxicology Unit.  Although much of the work undertaken in these two areas involves basic research aimed at understanding fundamental mechanisms, the long-term intention is to use the information gained from these studies of signalling pathways to develop better strategies for cancer treatment. 

These may be in the form of:

a) Identification and validation of novel targets from which new drugs could be developed

b) Identification of novel biomarkers for the disease state or for responses to drug treatments

c) Identification of mechanisms of resistance and sensitivity to drug treatment

There are several main areas of activity in which we have critical mass and a signficant level of funding:

Extrinsic and intrinsic pathways of apoptosis

• Cohen, Dyer, MacFarlane, Cain, Pinkoski, Martins

Pathways regulated by p53 and p53 family members

• Melino, Macip, Barlev

Development of novel therapies for B cell malignancies

• Dyer, Cain, Wagner

Control of gene expression

• Beck, Cowley, Schwabe,  Schaffrath, Eperon, Willis, Bushell, Wagner

Mitotic regulation and cell cycle checkpoints

• Fry, Tanaka, Patel, Pritchard, Melino, Jenkins

Oncogenic signalling and cell migration

• Manson, Pritchard, Tanaka, Tulchinsky, Burke, Kriajevska, Pullar, Prigent

Ion channels, GPCRs and cancer

• Mitcheson, Tobin, Willars