Signalling and the regulation of cancer growth and metastasis Image Professor Val Brunton - Professor of Cancer Therapeutics Research in a Nutshell Tumour cells metastasise via a series of discrete biological processes that allow cells to disseminate from the primary tumour, move and colonise distant sites within the body. Our research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms whereby tumour cells can metastasise and in particular how adhesion networks drive metastatic spread. More recently we have also become interested in how these same adhesion pathways regulate the tumour microenvironment.We use a range of protein/peptide technologies, genetic intervention and high-definition biological analysis including mouse models of cancer and quantitative intra-vital imaging that permits visualisation of multiple cancer cell phenotypes in vivo. This provides information on the molecular regulators of cancer processes linked to invasion, metastasis and survival in the tumour environment and allows us to monitor drug efficacy and mechanism of action of new molecularly targeted agents to enable identification of more effective treatments.Research Programme Image People Val BruntonPrincipal Investigator and Professor of Cancer TherapeuticsNicole BarthPostdoctoral ScientistAnnabel BlackPhD StudentEsme BullockPostdoctoral ScientistGiovana Carrasco GonzalezPostdoctoral ScientistJulián Corzo OchoaMRes StudentMolly DanksPhD StudentMuhammad FurqanPostdoctoral Scientist (with Neil Carragher/Margaret Frame)Rashi KrishnaPhD Student (with Ailith Ewing)Martin LeeImaging EngineerSpyros LetsiosPhD Student (with Alison Hulme)Piotr ManasterskiPostdoctoral ScientistMorwenna MuirSenior Technical OfficerSana ShabbirPhD StudentKinga SubaPostdoctoral Scientist (joint appointment Imperial College)Emily WebbPostdoctoral Scientist (with Margaret Frame)Contactv.brunton@ed.ac.ukPA: Jan.Irvine@ed.ac.uk Val Brunton - Research Information Scientific ThemesMetastasis, drug resistance, adhesion signallingTechnology ExpertiseMouse models of cancer, multimodal fluorescence and Raman imaging, cell biology This article was published on 2024-09-23
