School of Cancer Sciences

POG 10th Anniversary

The Paul O'Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre celebrated its 10th birthday on 25 May by hosting an international symposium on leukaemia research.

Over 160 attendees and 10 international and national leading experts in leukaemia field gave excellent talks.

To help mark the 10 year anniversary the POG-10 team have put together a calendar of events.
Follow us on Facebook POGLRC or Twitter @POG_LRC to stay up to date with what is happening!
 
20 May 2018:
Golf Day, 1pm, Balmore Golf Club, Glasgow
 
27th September 2018
Gin Tasting Charity Event; Mackintosh Church, Queen’s Cross

UoG Happy Birthday POG

Mahidol University,Thailand visit

(picture from Arran visit with profs from Mahidol University and Dr Helen Wheadon)

Dr Thawornchai Limjindaporn, Deputy Dean for Postgraduate Education and Prof Pai-Thai Yenchitsomanus, Director of Molecular Medicine from Mahidol University visited MVLS from April 26, 2018 until May 1, 2018. They met with the following staff from the Institute of Cancer Sciences (ICS) on their first day:

Prof Jeff Evans, Professor of Translational Cancer Research; Prof Anthony Chalmers, Chair of Clinical Oncology, Clinical Trials Research; Dr Seth Coffelt, Senior Research Fellow; Dr Joanne Edwards, Senior Lecturer, Experimental Therapeutics; Prof Paul Shiels, Professor of Gerosicence and Glasgow Ageing Research Network (GARNER) and Dr Helen Wheadon Senior Lecturer Cancer Sciences and Associate Dean Postgraduate Research

Cholangiocarcinoma and breast cancer are high areas of unmet need in Thailand. The interests mentioned for the joint PhD programme during the ICS meeting were: Precision medicine; Tumour biology (drug tolerance, breast and endocrine cancer); Drug development and traditional products and Cancer immunotherapy and clinical trials (preclinical through products and high throughput screening for natural products early stages).
Mahidol University also has access to patient Biobanks which is a potential source of material for collaborative projects.

The Cancer Hospital – BBC Scotland

BBC Scotland broadcasted a series of 3 1-hour documentaries during April and May 2018, featuring the work of the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, Glasgow.  Titled “The Cancer Hospital”, the series highlighted many of the research innovations that are currently under evaluation at the Centre, as well as recent developments arising out of past research that are now considered standard of care.

The series included interviews and contributions from several of the Clinical Academics in the Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow, including Dr Iain MacPherson, Prof Rob Jones, and Prof Jeff Evans, as well as from many former Clinical Research Fellows who are now NHS Consultants at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre.

Throughout the series, there was a strong focus on clinical research and innovation, particularly on clinical trials including early phase studies of novel anti-cancer agents supported by Cancer Research UK and by Glasgow’s ECMC (Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre) and CR-UK Clinical Trials Unit programmes at the University of Glasgow.

International Clinical Trials Day - May 2018

The Institute of Cancer Sciences held a symposium on May 18th, 2018, at The Hilton Grosvenor Hotel to celebrate International Clinical Trials Day.

The theme for this year’s meeting was “Precision Medicine as applied to Oncology”, and featured presentations from David Vetrie (ICS) who discussed the exciting developments in the research and management of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia led from Glasgow, and Jeff Evans (ICS) who discussed the pre-clinical and clinical development of novel agents in solid tumours with a particular emphasis on pancreatic cancer. 

Fiona Thomson (Translational Pharmacology Laboratory (ICS) highlighted the critical role of biomarkers in precision oncology studies, Audrey Morrison (research practitioner, Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre) discussed the ethical and regulatory challenges in precision oncology clinical trials, and Katie Robb (Institute of Health and Wellbeing) discussed how health behaviours can influence participation with a particular focus on cancer prevention programmes.

More than 70 delegates from healthcare, clinical trials regulatory affairs, patient and consumers involvement, and laboratory research attended, expertly organised by Kirsteen Jones, Glasgow’s CRUK Lead Research and Information nurse who will shortly be leaving us to take up an exciting new adventure with her family in Orkney.

CRUK CTU Funding Announcement

CRUK Glasgow Clinical Trials Unit awarded £4.5 million funding.

The story was widely covered via media in Scotland, across TV, radio, print and online.

The Herald

The story was a page lead in The Herald , print coverage in The Scotsman, Daily Record, The Scottish Sun, The National, Daily Star Scotland, Glasgow Evening Times, The Press and Journal and the Dundee Courier.

Jeff Evans was interviewed by STV,  and also did a live interview on News At One on STV2, which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/85QzeKiRwxo and there was a short news summary for STV News At Six programme which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/6pqmi12TIKI.

The story was covered by BBC News online, as well as Glasgow Live, The Sunday Post, The Herald, Glasgow Evening Times, The National, Radio Clyde and Heart FM.

Meeting announcement:
The first annual Mesothelioma Research Network research day will be held at the Wellcome collection, Euston Rd. London on June 29th.  Attendance is free but registration is required.  For details please refer to the British Lung Foundation website: MRN Research Day

Congratulations to Dr Nathiya Muthalagu who has won a highly contested L’Oréal-UNESCO UK & Ireland For Women In Science Fellowship.
Five winners were announced at a ceremony at the Royal Society in London on 24 May 2018.
L'Oreal UNESCO For Women In Science Awards

Seth Coffelt

Seth has been awarded the British Association for Cancer Research - AstraZeneca Young Scientist Frank Rose Award for 2018. This will be given at the NCRI in Glasgow in November.
Seth gave a talk at the Business Beats Cancer Dinner in aid of CRUK on Feb 22nd at the Grand Central Hotel. They raised £80,000.
Business Beats Cancer

Paul Shiels

Paul gave his first BBC GMS Long Interview earlier this year- It is part of a prestigious series (See other speakers). He has a possible second interview later in the year.

BBC Programmes

Long Interview: Paul Shiels
There is now evidence that people who are poor may transmit certain traits to their children - traits that might affect the rate at which they age, for example. The idea is controversial, because it implies that the environment can affect how genes are expressed - in the poor and in their children.
On the face of it this idea contradicts the so-called 'central dogma' of genetic theory, which says that gene changes are random and not influenced by the environment. And it's not just poverty - the field of epigenetics is discovering that what's in your genes is more fascinating - and much more complicated - than was once thought.
In this week’s Long Interview, Gordon Brewer delves into the subject and truth behind the so-called ‘Glasgow Effect’ with Paul Shiels, Professor of Epigenetics at the Institute of Cancer Sciences at Glasgow University.

The interview was picked up by the Times (London):
The Times - Paul Shiels

Prof Andrew Biankin

Friday 1st June – TEDx Glasgow – Panel Discussion hosted by Clare M. English including Dr Jack Kriendler, David Webster, Jess Mills and Andrew Biankin
TEDx Glasgow

Thursday 14th June – Glasgow Science Festival – “A Custom Job on Cancer” hosted by CRUK
Glasgow Science Festival - A Custom Job on Cancer

Dr Karen Keeshan was invited to give a talk at the “The 2nd International Symposium on Tribbles and Diseases”, Beijing China 7-9th May 2018, and also at the EMBPO workshop “Pseudoenzymes 2018: From molecular mechanisms to cell biology”, Sardinia Italy 16-19 May 2018.

PhD Student News

Hannah Craven is from Bingley in West Yorkshire and undertook her undergraduate degree in in Biochemistry at the University of Liverpool, followed by an MSc in Biotechnology at the University of Edinburgh in 2016, where she undertook an internship in a Biotech company working on a novel nucleic acid sensing technology for use by veterinarians in the field. Hannah started her current PhD position at the WWCRC in the Prof Paul Shiels lab, in March 2018. Her project is part of an IPP award with 4D Pharma, and involves investigating the influence of the microbiome on age-related disorders including colorectal cancer. Email: h.craven.1@research.gla.ac.uk

Ognian Neytchev is originally from Sofia, Bulgaria, but grew up in northern Italy from an early age. He graduated in Economics from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, which included semesters studying abroad in Brazil and Mexico. Following a spell working in Economics, Ognian decided on a change in career path and subsequently graduated in Biological Sciences from University in Milan. He is currently a PhD student in the Prof Paul Shiels lab at the Institute of Cancer Sciences, based at the WWCRC. His project is part of an IPP award to study of a novel class of senotherapeutic (a type of drug that ameliorates ageing and improves health span) in vitro and in vivo. Email: o.neytchev.1@research.gla.ac.uk

Shaun Patterson, a University of Glasgow BSc (MedSci) graduate and currently MSC student in Stratified Medicine and Pharmacological Innovation has been awarded a very competitive PhD studentship from Carnegie Trust, Scotland (one of 16 this year across all Scottish Universities, https://www.carnegie-trust.org/schemes/postgraduate-schemes/carnegie-caledonian-scholarships.html). Shaun will be supervised by Dr Xu Huang (POG-LRC), Dr Alison Michie (POG-LRC) and Prof Robert Liskamp (School of Chemistry) starting in October 2018.

Jane Bugler (Epigenetics) participated in the University three minute thesis competition, and won “people’s choice”.
Three Minute Thesis Winners

Alexander Collings, Dr Chris Halsey/Dr Fiona Thomson labs gave a talk about his PhD project and presented a poster at the Genomic Medicine 2018 Edinburgh Conference where he won 3rd place for his poster presentation.

Michael Moles, Natasha Malik, Ailsa Holroyd poster presentation.
Michael Moles and Natasha Malik were awarded an ASM 2018 Scholarship for a poster presentation at BSH.  Michael and Natasha also received a travel grant award to present a poster at the European Hematology Association (EHA) in Stockholm in June 2018. Natasha will also present a one minute oral project pitch.
Gillian Horne and Mary Scott will also present an oral presentations at EHA.

Congratulations to the following PhD students who have all been awarded their PhDs recently:

Christopher Estell - c.estell.1@research.gla.ac.uk - Prof Mhairi Copland (POG) and Dr Helen Wheadon (POG)

Victoria Campbell - v.campbell.1@research.gla.ac.uk - Prof Mhairi Copland (POG) and Dr Helen Wheadon (POG)

Pablo Sierra Gonzalez - 2109057S@student.gla.ac.uk

Clelia Amato - c.amato.1@research.gla.ac.uk

Joseph Hodgson - j.hodgson.1@research.gla.ac.uk

PhD Prize Lectures

PhD Prize Lectures took place on 27 April 2018.  Gillian Horne (Best Clinical Thesis) delivered her lecture entitled “Understanding the progression of CML through the regulation of self-renewal and cell surface markers” and Evangelos Giampazolias’ (Best non-Clinical Thesis) spoke on “Killing cancer by keeping it alive – at least for a bit”.

Frontiers in Cancer Sciences

Well done to the Frontiers in in Cancer Sciences students who presented their posters on March 23rd. All students performed well and the posters were well received by staff.

Publications

Daniel Murphy
2018  Muthalagu, N & D. J. Murphy.  Is oxidative stress MYC’s Achilles heel?  Cell Death & Differentiation. In Press.

Jeff Evans
Kudo, M., Finn, R., Qin, S., Han, K-H., Ikeda, K., Piscaglia, F., Baron,  A., Park, J-W., Han,  G., Jassem, J., Blanc, J.F., Vogel, A., Komov, D., Evans,  T.R.J., Lopez, C., Dutcus, C., Guo, M., Saito, K., Kraljevic, S., Tamai,  T., Ren, M., Cheng,  A-L. A randomised phase 3 trial of lenvatinib versus sorafenib in first-line treatment of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. Lancet 2018; 391: 1163-1173.

Carvajal, R.D., Piperno-Neumann, S., Kapiteijn, E., Chapman, P.B., Frank, S., Joshua, A.M., Piulats, J.M., Wolter, P., Cocquyt, V., Chmielowski, B., Evans, T.R.J., Gastaud, L., Linette, G., Berking, C., Schachter, J., Rodrigues, M.J., Clemett, D., Ghiorghiu, D., Mariani, G., Spratt, S., Lovick, S., Barker, P., Kilgour, E., Lai, Z., Schwartz, G.K., Nathan, P. Selumetinib in combination with dacarbazine in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma: a phase III, multicentre, randomised trial (SUMIT). Journal of Clinical Oncology 2018; 36: 1232-1239.

Candido, J.B., Morton, J.P., Bailey, P., Campbell, A.D., Karim, S.A., Jamieson, T., Lapienyte, L., Gopinathan, A., Clark, W., McGhee, E.J., Wang, J., Escorcio-Correia, M., Zollinger, R., Roshani, R., Drew, L., Rishi, L., Arkell, R., Evans, T.R.J., Nixon, C., Jodrell, D.I., Wilkinson, R.W., Biankin, A.V., Barry, S.T., Balkwill, F.R., Sansom, O.J. CSF1R+ macrophages sustain pancreatic tumor growth through T-cell suppression and maintenance of key gene programs that define the squamous subtype. Cell Reports 2018; 23: 1448-1460.

The Lancet - Lenvatinib (formerly known as E7080) came out of the phase I programme in Glasgow, first in human studies done here, the phase I was part of Hilary Glen’s PhD. We have worked with the drug for more than 10 years in Glasgow and this is a practice-changing study in HCC - Jeff Evans

Munje C, Copland M
Exploring Stem Cell Heterogeneity in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia.
Trends Cancer. 2018 Mar;4(3):167-169. doi: 10.1016/j.trecan.2017.12.001. Epub 2017 Dec 21 PMID:29506666
Zhang B, Nguyen LXT, Li L, Zhao D, Kumar B, Wu H, Lin A, Pellicano F, Hopcroft L, Su YL, Copland M, Holyoake TL, Kuo CJ, Bhatia R, Snyder DS, Ali H, Stein AS, Brewer C, Wang H, McDonald T, Swiderski P, Troadec E, Chen CC, Dorrance A, Pullarkat V, Yuan YC, Perrotti D, Carlesso N, Forman SJ, Kortylewski M, Kuo YH, Marcucci G.

Bone marrow niche trafficking of miR-126 controls the self-renewal of leukemia stem cells in chronic myelogenous leukemia.
Nat Med. 2018 May;24(4):450-462. doi: 10.1038/nm.4499. Epub 2018 Mar 5 PMID:29505034

Mara Salomè, Krisha Yalla, Shahzya Chaudhury, Evgenia Sarrou, and Karen Keeshan
Trib2 controls AML cell proliferation through regulation of cell cycle and stress response pathways. Cell Death Dis. 2018 Apr 18;9(5):443. doi: 10.1038/s41419-018-0467-3. PMID: 29670085.

Ashley A. Newcombe, Brenda E.S Gibson and Karen Keeshan
Harnessing the potential of epigenetic therapies for childhood AML. Exp Hematol. 2018 Mar 30. pii: S0301-472X(18)30166-8. doi: 10.1016/j.exphem.2018.03.008. PMID: 29608923. Review.

Caitriona O’Connor, Krishna Yalla, Mara Salomé, Hothri Ananyambica Moka, Eduardo Gómez Castañeda, Karen Keeshan
Trib2 expression in granulocyte-monocyte progenitors drives a highly drug resistant acute myeloid leukaemia linked to elevated Bcl2. Oncotarget. 2018 Feb 19;9(19):14977-14992. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.24525. eCollection 2018 Mar 13. PMID: 29599919.

Holroyd AK, Michie AM
The role of mTOR-mediated signaling in the regulation of cellular migration. Immunol Lett. 2018 Apr;196:74-79. doi: 10.1016/j.imlet.2018.01.015. Epub 2018 Feb 3. Review. PMID: 29408410

Open Access Update

‌

There will shortly be a move towards an ‘on demand’ model for reporting which will allow named people within Colleges and Schools to have access to data when and where they require it. A link to a beta version of the new reports has been sent out to administrators for testing. The Library will continue to send the monthly snapshot reports in the current format until users are happy using the forthcoming on-demand version. These reports are a work in progress and are being developed in consultation with Colleges.

If you have any queries, please contact the Open Access Team at research-openaccess@glasgow.ac.uk

Summer Event

Come and join us for pizza and drinks (15th June 12pm - 2pm) All Welcome

The ICS Social Committee are running quarterly seasonal events and if you are interested in joining the team you can contact us at:

cancersci-ins-newsletter@glasgow.ac.uk

Upcoming event...to coincide with "Movember" (Prostate Cancer UK) we will be hosting an International Men's Day event on Monday 19th November...we'll keep you posted.

Stay Safe Campaign

In case you haven't already heard about it, the SRC in partnership with Glasgow Taxis have launched a Stay Safe Campaign which allows students to use their student card as an emergency deposit with Glasgow Taxis if at the end of a night out they have no money to get home.

More details can be found here:
Safe Taxi Scheme

Staff with supervision or advisor roles might like to make a note of this so they can remind current and future students about this arrangement.

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on 25 May 2018.  Replacing the Data Protection Act, this is the most significant update to data protection law in two decades to meet today's information age.
GDPR strengthens individuals' rights and brings corresponding new requirements on organisations to demonstrate accountability, matched by new penalties for non-compliance. The UK Government will bring the GDPR into UK law as part of a Data Protection Bill.

For more information please visit: GDPR

Yammer Groups

Yammer includes a useful group relating to Professional Services staff (MPA) and there is also an Athena SWAN/GEM group. Once you have joined a group you will receive regular updates:

MPA Peer Network

Athena SWAN/GEM