Professor Catrin Pritchard
Contact Details
Room 526, Robert Kilpatrick Clinical Sciences Building
University of Leicester
Leicester Royal Infirmary
Leicester LE2 7LX
Email: CAP8@le.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 116 223 1857
Current Position(s)
Professor of Cancer Biochemistry
Deputy Director, Leicester Cancer Research Centre
Research
These fall into two areas:
Mechanisms of oncogene-driven tumour development
We use mouse and human tumour models to better understand mechanisms of tumour development driven by oncogenic BRAF and RAS. Most of our work has focussed on the use of genetically engineered knockin mouse models as tools for understanding the contribution of the tumour microenvironment to tumour initiation and progression, with an emphasis on lung adenocarcinoma and colorectal cancer models. Our work has unravelled novel secreted factors that play key roles in regulating cell-cell interactions in the tumour microenvironment and an impact of cholesterol metabolism on tumour associated macrophage function.
Patient-derived explants (PDEs) for drug and biomarker discovery
We have optimised conditions for the ex vivo culture of fragments of human tumours as patient derived explants (PDEs) without the requirement for tumour deconstruction. PDEs have the advantage over other preclinical models in that tumour architecture is retained intact, making them amenable to the testing of agents that target the tumour microenvironment including immune checkpoint inhibitors. We work with commercial organisations and translational charities to test the efficacy of novel anti-cancer agents in development and are applying digital pathology solutions at endpoint to identify and validate predictive and pharmacodynamic biomarkers. Our approach is being applied to a wide range of human primary and metastatic cancers including breast, colorectal, lung, endometrial, renal cancers as well as melanoma and mesothelioma.
Career
- 1983-1987: PhD at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.
- 1987-1990: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
- 1991-1995: Postdoctoral Fellow, DNAX Research Institute, Palo Alto, California, USA.
- 1995-2003: Royal Society Research University Research Fellow, University of Leicester.
- 2003-2004: Lecturer, Department of Biochemistry, University of Leicester.
- 2004-2009: Reader, Department of Biochemistry, University of Leicester.
- 2009: Professor of Cancer Biochemistry, University of Leicester.
- 2010-2015: Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award Holder
- 2014-2017: Science Director Cancer Research UK Leicester Centre
- 2014-2018: Head of Leicester Cancer Research Centre, University of Leicester
- 2018-present Deputy Director Cancer Research Centre, University of Leicester
Publications
My publications can be viewed here: PubMed
