Institute of Cancer Sciences

Prof Peter Adams

  • Scientist (Epigenetics)

email: Peter.Adams@glasgow.ac.uk


The Adams lab studies chromatin-mediated control of cell proliferation and function, most notably cell senescence. Cell senescence is an irreversible proliferation arrest instigated by a variety of molecular triggers including acquisition of activated oncogenes, and shortened telomeres caused by excess rounds of cell division. In addition, senescent cells secrete a cocktail of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and matrix proteases (the "inflammatory secretome") that is capable of influencing behavior of neighboring cells, including immune cells. Compelling evidence now indicates that cell senescence is a potent tumor suppression mechanism, notably in cells harboring activated oncogenes. Senescence-associated proliferation arrest and the inflammatory secretome act in concert to achieve tumor suppression: proliferation arrest directly curtails tumor growth and the inflammatory secretome calls on innate immune cells to eliminate the offending damaged cells. Because of senescence, most primary human cells have a finite proliferative lifespan, and evidence has been presented that senescence contributes to tissue ageing in vivo, in part by limiting the proper self-renewal of stem cells and tissues. In sum, cell senescence has both beneficial (healing) and detrimental (hurting) effects for a multicellular organism.

Adams figure

Lab members

Peter D. Adams, PhD - p.adams@beatson.gla.ac.uk
Peter Adams obtained his BA in biochemistry at the University of Oxford, England and his PhD at Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now CR-UK). He did post-doctoral work with Dr. William G. Kaelin, Jr. at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He set up his own lab at Fox Chase Cancer Center in 1999 and moved to the CR-UK Beatson Institute and Glasgow University in October of 2008.

Jeff Pawlikowski, BSc - j.pawlikowski@beatson.gla.ac.uk
Jeff Pawlikowski obtained his BSc and MSc from Drexel University, Philadelphia. Jeff is currently a PhD student at Glasgow University , UK

David M. Nelson, BSc. - d.nelson@beatson.gla.ac.uk
David Nelson obtained his BSc from Messiah College, Pennsylvania. David is currently a PhD student at Glasgow University, UK

Indrani Manoharan, MSc. - i.manoharan@beatson.gla.ac.uk
Indrani Manoharan obtained her MSc from University of Leicester, UK

Rachael Hewitt, BSc. - RachaelnHewitt@gmail.com
Rachael Hewitt obtained her BSc from the University of Glasgow, UK

Taranjit Singh Rai, PhD. - tsrai11@gmail.com
Taranjit Singh Rai obtained his PhD from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, India

Nikolay Pchelintsev, PhD. - n.a.pchelintsev@googlemail.com
Nikolay Pchelintsev obtained his PhD from the University of Leeds, UK

John van Tuyn, PhD. - jvantuyn@hotmail.com
John van Tuyn obtained his PhD from Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands

Andrejs Ivanov, PhD. - a.ivanov@beatson.gla.ac.uk
Andrejs Ivanov obtained his PhD from the University of Manchester

Hazel Cruickshanks, PhD. - h.cruickshanks@beatson.gla.ac.uk
Hazel Cruickshanks obtained her PhD from the University of Edinburgh

Tony McBryan, PhD. - tony@mcbryan.co.uk
Tony McBryan obtained his PhD from the University of Glasgow

Mark Drotar, MSc. - Mark.Drotar@glasgow.ac.uk
Mark Drotar obtained a Master Science from Colorado State University

Kirstin Lund, MCChB Euro, MRCP. - Kirstin.Lund@glasgow.ac.uk
Kirstin Lund was awarded an MCChB Euro from Manchester University and is a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP), London

Dina Dikovskaya, PhD. - Dina.Dikovskaya@glasgow.ac.uk
Dina Dikovskaya obtained her PhD from Institute of Genetics (Institut für Genetik), Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany

 
Research Collaborations

The lab has extensive collaborations with other labs throughout the world.
In particular, we collaborate closely with the labs of Dr. Shelley Berger (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia), Ronen Marmorstein (Wistar Institute, Philadelphia) and Brad Johnson (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia). These collaborations are funded by an NIH program project grant on the "Epigenetics of aging and age-associated diseases" (http://agingepigenetics.wordpress.com/)
We are also recipients of joint funding from the BBSRC and United States NIA to fund collaborative work with Professor John Sedivy at Brown University, on "The Wnt - chromatin axis in aging".
Rachael Hewitt is funded by a BBSRC/CASE studentship in collaboration with Dr. David Gunn at Unilever (Colworth, England) and Dr. Andrea Maier at the University of Leiden (Netherlands).
We are always open to new collaborations.

Jump to: 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008
Number of items: 20.

2013

Pchelintsev, N.A., McBryan, T., Rai, T.S., van Tuyn, J., Ray-Gallet, D., Almouzni, G., and Adams, P.D. (2013) Placing the HIRA histone chaperone complex in the chromatin landscape. Cell Reports, 3 (4). pp. 1012-1019. ISSN 2211-1247 (doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2013.03.026)

Adams, P., Antebi, A., Cuervo, A.M., Kennedy, B., and Sedivy, J. (2013) Editorial. Aging Cell, 12 (1). p. 1. ISSN 1474-9718 (doi:10.1111/acel.12037)

Sawicka, M., Pawlikowski, J., Wilson, S., Ferdinando, D., Wu, H., Adams, P.D., Gunn, D.A., and Parish, W. (2013) The specificity and patterns of staining in human cells and tissues of p16INK4a antibodies demonstrate variant antigen binding. PLoS ONE, 8 (1). e53313. ISSN 1932-6203 (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053313)

Adams, P., Antebi, A., Cuervo, A.M., Kennedy, B., and Sedivy, J. (2013) Editorial. Aging Cell, 12 (1). p. 1. ISSN 1474-9718 (doi:10.1111/acel.12037)

2012

Dekker, P. et al. (2012) Microarray-based identification of age-dependent differences in gene expression of human dermal fibroblasts. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, 133 (7). pp. 498-507. ISSN 0047-6374 (doi:10.1016/j.mad.2012.06.002)

Rai, T.S., and Adams, P.D. (2012) Lessons from senescence: chromatin maintenance in non-proliferating cells. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA): Gene Regulatory Mechanisms, 1819 (3-4). pp. 322-331. ISSN 1874-9399 (doi:10.1016/j.bbagrm.2011.07.014)

Tang, Y., Puri, A., Ricketts, M.D., Rai, T.S., Hoffmann, J., Hoi, E., Adams, P.D., Schultz, D.C., and Marmorstein, R. (2012) Identification of an ubinuclein 1 region required for stability and function of the human HIRA/UBN1/CABIN1/ASF1a histone H3.3 chaperone complex. Biochemistry, 51 (12). pp. 2366-2377. ISSN 0006-2960 (doi:10.1021/bi300050b)

van Tuyn, J., and Adams, P.D. (2012) Signalling the end of the line. Nature Cell Biology, 14 (4). pp. 339-341. ISSN 1465-7392 (doi:10.1038/ncb2476)

2011

Ray-Gallet, D. et al. (2011) Dynamics of histone H3 deposition in vivo reveal a nucleosome gap-filling mechanism for H3.3 to maintain chromatin integrity. Molecular Cell, 44 (6). pp. 928-941. ISSN 1097-2765 (doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2011.12.006)

Kennedy, A.l. et al. (2011) Activation of the PIK3CA/AKT Pathway Suppresses Senescence Induced by an Activated RAS Oncogene to Promote Tumorigenesis. Molecular Cell, 42 (1). pp. 36-49. ISSN 1097-2765 (doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2011.02.020)

Ivanov, A., and Adams, P.D. (2011) A damage limitation exercise. Nature Cell Biology, 13 (3). p. 193. ISSN 1465-7392 (doi:10.1038/ncb0311-193)

Cruickshanks, H.A.., and Adams, P.D. (2011) Chromatin: a molecular interface between cancer and aging. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, 21 (1). pp. 100-106. ISSN 0959-437X (doi:10.1016/j.gde.2010.10.007 )

Rai, T., Puri, A., McBryan, T., Hoffman, J., Tang, Y., Pchelintsev, N.A., van Tuyn, J., Marmorstein, R., Schultz, D.C., and Adams, P.D. (2011) Human CABIN1 Is a functional member of the human HIRA/UBN1/ASF1a histone H3.3 chaperone complex. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 31 (19). pp. 4107-4118. ISSN 0270-7306 (doi:10.1128/MCB.05546-11)

2010

Kennedy, A.L., McBryan, A., Enders, G.H., Johnson, F.B., Zhang, R., and Adams, P.D, (2010) Senescent mouse cells fail to overtly regulate the HIRA histone chaperone and do not form robust Senescence Associated Heterochromatin Foci. Cell Division, 5 (16). ISSN 1747-1028 (doi:10.1186/1747-1028-5-16)

Kreiling, J.A. et al. (2010) Age-associated increase in heterochromatic marks in murine and primate tissues. Aging Cell, 10 (2). pp. 292-304. ISSN 1474-9718 (doi:10.1111/j.1474-9726.2010.00666.x)

Poleshko, A., Einarson, M.B., Shalginskikh, N., Zhang, R., Adams, P.D., Skalka , A.M., and Katz, R.A. (2010) Identification of a functional network of human epigenetic silencing factors. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 285 . 422 -433. ISSN 0021-9258 (doi:10.1074/jbc.M109.064667 )

2009

Adams, P (2009) Healing and Hurting: Molecular Mechanisms, Functions, and Pathologies of Cellular Senescence. Molecular Cell, 36 (1). pp. 2-14. ISSN 1097-2765 (doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2009.09.021 )

Ambagala, A.P., Bosma, T., Ali, M.A., Poustovoitov, M., Chen, J.J., Gershon, M.D., Adams, P.D., and Cohen, J.I. (2009) Varicella-Zoster Virus immediate-early 63 protein interacts with human anti-silencing function 1 protein and alters its ability to bind histones H3.1 and H3.3. J. Journal of Virology, 83 (1). pp. 200-209. ISSN 0022-538X (doi:10.1128/JVI.00645-08)

Banumathy, G, Somaiah, N, Zhang, RG, Tang, Y, Hoffmann, J, Andrake, M, Ceulemans, H, Schultz, D, Marmorstein, R, and Adams, P (2009) Human UBN1 Is an Ortholog of Yeast Hpc2p and Has an Essential Role in the HIRA/ASF1a Chromatin-Remodeling Pathway in Senescent Cells. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 29 (3). pp. 758-770. ISSN 0270-7306 (doi:10.1128/MCB.01047-08)

2008

Poleshko, A., Palagin, I., Zhang, R., Boimel, P., Castagna, C., Adams, P.D., Skalka, A.M., and Katz, R.A. (2008) Identification of cellular proteins that maintain retroviral epigenetic silencing: evidence for an antiviral response. Journal of Virology, 82 . pp. 2313-2323. ISSN 0022-538X (doi:10.1128/JVI.01882-07)

This list was generated on Tue May 21 16:01:23 2013 BST.