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Full NameProfessor Daniel Longley
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
- clinical trials
- Medicine
- Surgery
- Pathology
- Public Health
- Gastroenterology
- Haematology
- Infectious diseases
- Immunology
- Oncology
- Pharmacology
My laboratory focuses on understanding the molecular basis of chemotherapy resistance in solid tumours, particularly colorectal cancer. Specifically, our focus is on overcoming chemo-resistance by activating cancer cell death. We are currently exploring a number of approaches to target genes and proteins that promote cell survival as well as using modern molecular pathology approaches to identify predictive biomarkers to enable the targeted use of novel anti-cancer therapeutics in molecularly-defined patient populations. Much of our recent work has focused on the anti-apoptotic protein FLIP, the high expression of which is found in a number of cancers and correlates with poor prognosis. These observations are relevant to drug resistance, as we consistently find that FLIP is a key determinant of response to standard-of-care therapies, with high expression conferring resistance to cell death induced by a range of chemotherapeutic agents. Conversely, we have found that FLIP downregulation synergistically enhances chemotherapy-induced apoptosis. These results suggest that targeting FLIP has therapeutic potential for overcoming drug resistance. Moreover, certain immune-suppressive, tumour-promoting immune cell populations, such as myeloid-derived suppressive cells (MDSCs) and Tregs, are FLIP-dependent; we are therefore currently developing small molecule inhibitors of this critical cell death regulatory protein.