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Full NameDr Paul B Mullan
Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology
Queen's University Belfast
Webpage:qub.ac.uk
Email Address:Email hidden; Javascript is required.
- genetics, genomics and molecular biology
- cancer/oncology
- Other
Liquid Biopsies, Drug development
- Medicine
- Surgery
- Pathology
- Oncology
My group have long standing interests in investigating the mechanisms driving the pathogenesis of breast cancers. We have also a strong involvement in the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer using blood samples.
(1) For breast cancers we are particularly interested in Triple Negative Breast Cancers (TNBCs) and other subgroups of breast cancers with particularly poor outcomes, such as those with amplified T-box2 (TBX2). Our investigations have found that aberrant TGF beta signalling drives TNBC growth and spread, with a transcription factor called GLI2 playing a major role. In TBX2-amplified breast cancers, we have found that the enzyme Lysine Specific Demethylase 1 (LSD1) is important in helping TBX2 switch off important growth control genes, making LSD1 an attractive treatment possibility.
(2) For ovarian cancers we know that many regions of cellular DNA becomes aberrantly methylated as the disease progresses. We have identified a number of these regions and we show that they are consistently altered, even in early disease when compared to matched normal tissue. When we extract small amounts of circulating tumour DNA from patients' blood we can detect these changes also, meaning that we now have the basis of a diagnostic test to detect ovarian cancef earlier and more accurately.