Molecular Oncology

Group Leaders and Projects

Dr. Helen Bryant

Response of tumour cells to DNA replication stress. Exploitation of alterations in these responses to develop new therapies

The aim of my research is to understand what happens when DNA replication is slowed or stopped by damage in DNA. By understanding the normal control mechanisms in cells I aim to understand why defects in the proteins involved are associated with cancer.
I want to pinpoint differences between dividing tumour cells and dividing normal cells and determine which are important in cancer development. This will enable us to develop drugs which can specifically kill the tumour cells rather than just all dividing cells.
We have particular interests in the mechanisms of genetic instability in bladder, breast and uveal cancer and enjoy close ties with our clinical colleagues in the Royal Hallamshire Hospital (including several joint projects) and with medicinal chemists at the University of Sheffield. This enables us to translate our research quickly into potential therapies.

Mr. James Catto

Translational epigenomics in bladder and prostate cancer: Discovery of prognostic epigenetic molecular detail for application in clinical care. Epigenetic instability in cancer

• Dudziec E et al.
  Hypermethylation of CpG Islands and Shores adjacent to mirtron and microRNA genes in bladder cancer.
  Clin Cancer Res. 2011 Jan 28
• Owen HC, et al.
  Low frequency of epigenetic events in urothelial tumors from young patients.
  J Urol. 2010 Aug;184(2):459-63

Dr. Spencer Collis  

The identification and characterisation of novel genome maintenance factors and their involvement in genetically unstable human disorders

The work of the lab aims to understand the complex mechanisms of DNA repair pathways in order to expand our knowledge of cancer development and progression. We are discovering new proteins that are involved in the detection and subsequent repair of DNA damage, and we are particularly interested in determining if mutations in these proteins lead to the development of genetically unstable human diseases such as cancer. The study of such proteins will not only give us insight into how these DNA repair pathways work, but also tell us how they go wrong in the development of human disease. It is hoped that this work could lead to the development of new or improved anti-cancer treatments and/or clinically useful biomarkers.

Professor Angela Cox - Head of Unit

The role of common variants of genes involved in the DNA damage response and apoptosis pathways in susceptibility to common cancers

• Camp NJ*, Parry P*, Knight S, Abo R, Elliott G, Rigas S, Balasubramanian SP, Reed MWR, McBurney H, Latif A, Newman WG, Cannon-Albright LA, Evans DG, Cox A.
  Fine-mapping CASP8 risk variants in Breast Cancer.
  Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 2012 21, 176-81.
• Lin WY, Camp NJ, Cannon-Albright LA, Allen-Brady K, Balasubramanian S, Reed MW, Hopper JL, Apicella C, Giles GG, Southey MC, Milne RL, Arias-Pérez JI, Menéndez-Rodríguez P, Benítez J, Grundmann M, Dubrowinskaja N, Park-Simon TW, Dörk T, Garcia-Closas M, Figueroa J, Sherman M, Lissowska J, Easton DF, Dunning AM, Rajaraman P, Sigurdson AJ, Doody MM, Linet MS, Pharoah PD, Schmidt MK, Cox A.
  A role for XRCC2 gene polymorphisms in breast cancer risk and survival.
  J Med Genet. 2011 Jul;48(7):477-484

Professor Mark Meuth

DNA damage response and the regulation of cell death in tumour and stem cells

• Gagou, M.E., Ganesh, A., Thompson, R., Phear, G., Sanders, C. and Meuth, M. (2011)
  The human Pif1 helicase suppresses apoptosis in response to DNA replication inhibitors in tumor cells.
  Cancer Res. In press.

• Myers, K., Gagou, M.E., Zuazua-Villar, P., Rodriguez, R., and Meuth M. (2009)
  ATR and Chk1 suppress a Caspase-3 apoptotic response following DNA replication stress.
  PLoS Genetics, 5(1):e1000324.

Dr. Cyril Sanders

Replication and gene regulation in papillomavirus. Structure and function of helicases and replication/transcription control proteins. DNA helicases involved in the DNA damage response and their potential as therapeutic targets in cancer.

• Whelan F, Stead JA, Shkumatov AV, Svergun DI, Sanders CM, Antson AA. (2012)
  A flexible brace maintains the assembly of a hexameric replicative helicase during DNA unwinding.
  Nucleic Acids Res. 40: 2271-83. doi:10.1093/nar/gkr906.
• Sanders CM. (2010).
  Human Pif1 helicase is a G-quadruplex DNA-binding protein with G-quadruplex DNA-unwinding activity.
  Biochem J. 430: 119-28. doi: 10.1042/BJ20100612.