Welcome to the December 2019 ICS Newsletter
It’s your Newsletter so please remember to send information to the newsletter team for publication. Suggestions on topics and content for future issues are most welcome.
Professor Owen Sansom
Director
Thank You!
@UofGCancerSci @ICS_AthenaSWAN
Institute News
Institute News
Cancer Research UK RadNet: Making The UK A Global Hub For Radiotherapy Research
Announcement of £56 million investment in Cancer Research UK RadNet, a national network of centres of excellence in radiation research.
(Anthony Chalmers and Jak Deschner)
CRUK RadNet is our largest ever investment in radiotherapy research and is set to transform the field in this country, establishing the UK a global hub for radiotherapy research. The network will unite seven centres of excellence across the country to accelerate investigation into key therapies including FLASH, proton beam, precision medicine and combination therapies. Find out more
Congratulations to Prof Andrew Biankin on his Order of Australia award. Andrew received his award at a ceremony in London on 11th November 2019 - Read more here
Glasgow Cancer Test holds promise of more clinical trials
GPOL has developed a ground breaking cancer test for research and clinical trials that could ultimately change the way cancer medicine is delivered.
The Glasgow Cancer Tests are a suite of affordable solid tumour and blood cancer genomic tests, developed specifically to enable patients to benefit from real-world precision medicine-based cancer treatments. They are currently being evaluated by NHS labs in England and Scotland. The tests are also being used in the Precision-Panc clinicals trials platform.
The story made UofG Headline news and BBC Scotland News
Prof Andrew Biankin also gave an interview on BBC Radio Scotland.
GPOL Update
Precision-Panc Update from Judith Dixon Hughes
The 250th patient was entered to the trial in December.
There are now 25 UK sites taking part, with 251 patients entered and 192 registered to the Master protocol which acts as a portal for entry into 2 currently open PRIMUS clinical trials. Look out for more Precision-Panc PRIMUS clinical trials opening in 2020.
Precision-Panc Roundtable Meeting
A Roundtable on improving access to clinical trials for patients with pancreatic cancer was held on 3rd September in Manchester. The Roundtable was hosted by the University of Manchester’s Professor Juan Valle and was attended by representatives from Pancreatic Cancer UK, Pancreatic Cancer Scotland, Pancreatic Cancer Action and the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund, as well as research nurses, clinicians and researchers.
Preliminary insights from the roundtable reveal two main areas of concern:
- communications and health literacy
- uneven resources available at the NHS trial sites
Key to addressing and resolving these issues for the Precision-Panc trials, and indeed other precision medicine trials, is the development of a significant communications project that addresses needs throughout the continuum of participants from the patients and public, to the clinicians and the researchers. Discussions are underway about the form of this project.
A second Roundtable is planned for November 2020 to discuss progress.
GPOL Staff Update
Dr Paul Grimwood is now GPOL Bioinformatics Lead. Well done Paul.
We have a visiting surgeon from Verona, Dr Antonio Pea, working with us until September 2020. Antonio will be working between our labs and the GRI.
Honours project student Katarina Balazova from School of Life Sciences joined the team on 23rd September.
Prof Aldo Scarpa, Dr Rita Lawlor and Dr Andrea Mafficini from University of Verona visited 5th to 8th August. Dr Rita Lawlor visited again on 5th and 6th November.
Prof Bin Tean TEH (National Cancer Centre Singapore) visited the WWCRC and gave a talk on 13th August “Genomic, Epigenomic and Immunological studies of Cholangiocarcinoma in Diverse Populations”
Prof Andrew Biankin invites you to a Recital in aid of Pancreatic Cancer Scotland @pancanscot
26th January 2020, 2pm (RSVP by 19 January 2020) measton@pancanscot.org or andrew.biankin@glasgow.ac.uk
The Immune Oncology Colloquium took place at the CRUK Beatson Institute on 16th September 2019 Hosted by Ed Roberts @Robertslab1 (CRUK Beatson Institute)
Robert opened with a talk about tumor antigen-trading in myeloid cells. If you missed it, catch up on it here
There were PhD student/Postdoc flash talks from:
Sarah Laing (Daniel Murphy lab)
Laura Lapienyte (Jen Morton lab)
Joel Riley (Stephen Tait lab)
Youhani Samarakoon (Shehab Ismail lab)
Rene Jackstadt (Owen Sansom lab)
Amanda McFarlane (Leo Carlin lab)
Mark Lawrence (Seth Coffelt lab)
Followed by a talk from Drew Pardoll, M.D., Ph.D.
Abeloff Professor of Oncology Director, Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
Director, Cancer Immunology Program The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
World Pancreatic Cancer Day 2019
On 21 November we marked WPCD 2019 with a coffee & cake fundraising event. The total raised was £157 for Pancreatic Cancer Scotland. Thanks to everyone who came along to support and donate.
Dr Alison Michie’s group
We promised exciting things at the end of August and after a long, impatient wait the Michie labs’ Journal of Visualized Experiments video is here!Follow the link to watch them in action - JoVE video
On 5th Oct, Dr Xu Huang’s team attended the first Tenovus Scotland Symposium in Perth. Laura Monaghan (3rd year PhD student supported by Adam Renwick Martin-POG PhD fellowship and a Tenovus Scotland pilot project grant) gave an oral presentation for her work.
Dr Natasha Malik and Mr Michael Moles from Dr Alison Michie’s group presented posters at the IWCLL meeting in Edinburgh. Dr Malik received a travel award from the UKCLL forum to allow her to attend.
Professor Mhairi Copland was invited to speak at the Scottish Haematology Society Annual Meeting in Dunblane in November 2019. Her talk was entitled “Hot topics in CML management”.
Dr Alison Laing, PhD Student, was speaking at the Glasgow Paediatric Research day at the QEUH in Glasgow on Friday 8th Nov. She got runner up prize for long oral communications. Rachel Porter, a medical student who did her BSc project with Dr Karen Keeshan got runner up prize for poster presentation at the same meeting and also presented at the medical research symposium of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (20 Nov) and won first prize for undergraduate poster presentation
European School of Haematology, Estoril, Portugal – October 2019
We had staff and students presenting posters at this year’s meeting:
Wittawat Chantkran, PhD student - “Combination of CYC065, a second generation CDK2/9 inhibitor, with venetoclax or standard chemotherapy – a novel therapeutic approach for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)"
Dr Laura Richmond, Post-Doc – “Repurposing multi-ErbB tyrosine kinase inhibitors for treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia”
American Society of Haematology, Orlando, Florida – December 2019
Professor Mhairi Copland will be presenting a talk this year entitled “Ponatinib in Patients with Blast Phase Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia: Results from the Phase I/II UK Trials Acceleration Programme Matchpoint Trial”
Our PhD students are also presenting posters -
Laura Monaghan – “Efficient elimination of Acute Myeloid Leukemic cells through inhibition of KDM4A in combination with PARP inhibition”
Caroline Busch – “The Role of the BMP Pathway in Sustaining CML Stem Cells in the Bone Marrow Niche”
Wittawat Chantkran – “Combination of CYC065, a second generation CDK2/9 inhibitor, with venetoclax or standard chemotherapy – a novel therapeutic approach for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)”
Some of the POG team were out and about at the Forge shopping centre and at a local primary school as part of this years’ Explorathon, getting children and adults involved!
(Dr Laura Richmond and Dr Karen Keeshan)
Dr Karen Keeshan and Dr Laura Richmond visited Shotts Prison as part of the Cell Block Science Project. Laura says "The Cell Block Science project is a joint public engagement effort across multiple Scottish Universities aimed at promoting STEM learning in several Scottish prisons. Over the course of the day, we taught small groups of learners of varied educational backgrounds about a range of topics including haematopoiesis and leukaemia’s. It was a very rewarding and unique experience and I would highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in science communication."
POG Gin Club 2019 – Gin Tasting Night – September 2019. This is the second year of this event and once again was very well attended raising nearly £3000 for POG. Big thank you to all those who took part in the event and contributed to raffle prizes and silent auction.
Christmas Craft Fair – November 2019. Many thanks for everyone who contributed to this and helped out on the day. Total amount raised TBC.
Happy News
Everyone at POG would like to congratulate Laura Boyd, long-time supporter of POG and local celebrity (STV Entertainment Reporter) on the birth of her baby daughter, Penelope Jayne Tessa Ford. Born 23 November, weighing 7lbs 8oz. Laura has chronic myeloid leukaemia and was looked after by the late Professor Tessa Holyoake and we are especially touched that she has named her daughter after Tessa. We wish the whole family well. (Photo Penelope Jayne Tessa Ford)
Staff News and Awards
Staff News and Awards
Congratulations to Prof Stephen Tait who gave the first ever University of Glasgow inaugural lecture to take place in the CRUK Beatson Institute lecture theatre on 6th September. Stephen’s lecture was introduced by Prof Kevin Ryan, attended by colleagues, friends & family and followed by a drinks reception in the Atrium.
Dr Chiara Braconi attended the Cholangiocarcinoma-UK meeting in Nottingham in November where she was awarded with the honour of giving the first Neil Blenkinsop Memorial Lecture that recognized national researchers with the highest level of publication in the topic “basic research in cholangiocarcinoma”.
The picture taken above at the event is with Mrs and Ms Blenkinsop, who have fundraised in memory of their husband and father and donated the funds to cholangiocarcinoma UK to support the memorial lecture and a young investigator grant (awarded to Ed Jarman from University of Edinburgh). Also pictured is Shahid Khan, chair of CCA-UK.
Prof Paul Shiels attended and spoke at the prestigious Nobel Symposium 2019 in Stockholm and was also on the International Advisory board for this years’ event.
The Symposium focussed on Bio-inspirational medicine: using nature to unlock access to opportunities in health. The event was strictly 'by invite only’ and limited to 100 peer nominated participants.
Prof Shiels delivered a presentation entitled 'Nutrients and ageing: What can we learn from animal biology?’.
He was also an invitee attending the Zoobiquity Symposium 2019 and Medici Effect Workshop satellite events in Stockholm, promoting cross-disciplinary collaborations to solve problems in human health and enabling address of the current WHO Global Goals for Sustainable Developments.
Follow ups from all these events has seen Prof Shiels contribute to an NIH initiative for sustained funding for cross disciplinary research via Zoobiquity, and by invitation to provide evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Longevity, as part of their Action Plan within a National Strategy for healthy longevity.
Dr David Walker, a postdoctoral research associate in Professor Anthony Chalmers’ lab, recently visited both of his daughters’ school, Craigiebarns Primary in Dundee, where children were learning about the NHS and how different parts of the body work. David’s research is investigating the effects of radiation on the normal brain, and so talked to the pupils about different parts of the brain that are involved in forming dreams, thinking, regulating hunger/thirst and generating movement.
David also talked about why he wanted to become a scientist and described some of the special equipment and skills he uses in his job. As David’s research has clinical links, he talked about how his job is linked to work in the NHS and how his research is helping to make an impact in this area. David showed the pupils some MRI scans of brains and were able to identify a tumour, as well as play a game where they had to match the brain with the animal! This led to some very excellent questions by the pupils, which suggests they thoroughly enjoyed the visit and may have given some a little bit of inspiration to become a scientist!
A warm welcome to all of our new staff
Eugenia Martin – Technician, joined Alistair Ritchie in the GPOL Sequencing Lab in September. She worked for the University of Glasgow for 7 years before moving to the NHS (working in Genetics) and is now back at the University. Email: Eugenia.Martin@glasgow.ac.uk
Minnie Ramjee – Technician, joined Alistair Ritchie in the GPOL Sequencing Lab in September. She recently moved from Aberdeen and used to work for the University of Aberdeen. Email: meenakshi.ramjee@glasgow.ac.uk
In case we haven’t met, my name is Holly Leslie and I have recently begun my research career as a Laboratory Technician in Nigel Jamieson’s group in the Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre. I am originally from sunny Aberdeen where I stayed to undertake my undergraduate studies before choosing to complete my postgraduate studies in Cancer Sciences (MRes) at the University of Birmingham. My previous research experience has involved a mixture of immunological and molecular biology techniques. During my masters’ project, I investigated CD8+ T cell responses to an EBV-associated Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, a rare head and neck cancer. Outside of work, I am often training for an upcoming endurance event (usually a Half Marathon) and enjoy volunteering with Girl Guiding UK as a unit helper. Additionally, I am very keen to develop my passion in Science Communication, so please get in touch if you know of any little projects or events that may be of interest! I’m really pleased to have joined such an innovative team here in Glasgow and to those who I have met, thank you for all your warm welcomes. I am based on Floor 4 of WWCRC building and am always up for a natter and a coffee, whether it be work-related or otherwise! Email: Holly.Leslie@glasgow.ac.uk
Samuel Powell - I’m a recent Computer Science graduate from the North West of England who recently moved up to pursue a career working in computer programming. I’ve moved up recently to Glasgow City Centre and into my new role as a Trainee Computer Programmer for the Clinical Trials Unit at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre. Email: Samuel.Powell@glasgow.ac.uk
Claire Rooney is a Respiratory NES/CSO Clinical Lecturer who has recently joined Daniel Murphy’s lab. She completed her undergraduate medical degree at the University of Glasgow and has trained since in Respiratory medicine in Glasgow and in London as an MRC Clinical Training Fellow at King’s College where she defended her PhD in 2018. She is interested in the interplay between inflammation and the progression to cancer in mesothelioma, and the role of macrophages in this process. Outside of work she can usually be found running around with (after!) her two children. Email: Claire.Rooney@glasgow.ac.uk
Alejandro Huerta Uribe obtained his BSc in Pharmaceutical and Biological Chemistry at the Michoacan University of Saint Nicholas of Hidalgo, Mexico. He then joined the Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD programme at the University of Glasgow, where he worked under the supervision of Prof Andrew Roe exploring antivirulence based strategies to prevent Shiga toxin expression in enterohaemorrhagic E. coli. After completing his PhD, Alejandro joined the Duncan lab at the University of Strathclyde as a postdoctoral research associate where he worked on the discovery of bacterial natural products using metabolomics. Alejandro is now part of the Maddocks lab working on cancer metabolism. Email: Alejandro.HuertaUribe@glasgow.ac.uk
Natasha Malik, I have just finished my PhD with Dr Alison Michie at the Paul O’Gorman Leukemia Research Centre and have now joined Prof Jim Norman’s lab working for Dr Iain MacPherson. It is a great place to be in and I am very excited about where it takes me. Email: Natasha.Malik@glasgow.ac.uk
Douglas Cartwright is a clinical research fellow in Sara Zanivan's lab working on proteomics of cancer associated fibroblast in ovarian cancer. During my clinical time I work with the ovarian team at the Beatson hospital. Email: 2509664C@student.gla.ac.uk
Dr Mattia Falcone - I am an EMBO postdoctoral fellow in the group of Oliver Maddocks at the Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre. My office is on level 3, room 316. Before joining the group of Oliver, I was in Heidelberg (Germany) in the lab of Andreas Trumpp at the DKFZ as PhD student.
During my PhD I studied how branched chain amino acids metabolism affects DNA methylation in acute myeloid leukaemia stem cells. Now I will be working on the metabolic crosstalk between tumour and stromal cells in pancreatic cancer and how this exchange of molecules alters their epigenome. Email: Mattia.Falcone@glasgow.ac.uk
Dr Viktoriya Boncheva is a new honorary clinical fellow working with GPOL on Level 4. Email: viktoriya.boncheva@glasgow.ac.uk
Dr Sarah Derby, Clinical Lecturer
Dr Jenny Crowe, Research Assistant, Beatson Institute, Email: Jenny.Crowe@glasgow.ac.uk
Mr Matthew Massett, Research Assistant, Affiliate, POG, Email: Matthew.Massett@glasgow.ac.uk
Mr Tom Muir, Head of IT, Clinical Trials Unit, Email: Tom.Muir@glasgow.ac.uk
Mr John Pritchard, Technician, Email: John.Pritchard@glasgow.ac.uk
Dr Mark White, Clinical Research Fellow, Email: Mark.White@glasgow.ac.uk
Leon Green - I am a 22 year old statistician. I graduated Strathclyde university with an honours degree in mathematics, statistics and economics and a master's degree applied mathematical sciences. I previously worked as part of the cancer prevention group, specialising in cervical cancer, in Guy's cancer hospital, London. I am based at the Clinical Trials Unit. Email: Leon.Green@glasgow.ac.uk
Grants and Awards
Tenovus pilot project grant, co-applicants – Dr Xu Huang/Dr Gillian Horne (POG)
CSO catalyst project grant, co-applicants – Dr Xu Huang/Dr Heather Jorgensen (POG) - “Identification of Combination Therapies Targeting DNA Damage Repair Signalling Pathways in AML Stem Cells”
MRC CiC project grant, co-applicants – Dr Xu Huang/Dr Heather Jorgensen (POG) - “Target validation of the critical epigenetic regulator, KDM4A in acute myeloid leukaemia”
Royal Society International Exchange Fund, co-applicants – Dr Xu Huang/Prof. Zhi Qi (Peking University, China)
MRC CiC Project Grant – Dr Karen Keeshan (POG) - “Developing TRIB2 as a predictive biomarker for acute myeloid leukaemia sensitivity to the clinical covalent multi-ERBB compounds”
Dr Krstina Kirschner received a reagent grant from ArcherDX for targeted sequencing of clonal haemopoiesis mutations.
Athena SWAN News
ICS Athena SWAN News
Silver Application update
We did it! We are delighted to let everyone know that we were successful in getting our Silver award. Achieving this has had a major impact on the Institute with the creation of lots of new initiatives. Dr Chris Halsey will forward the feedback from Athena SWAN when it becomes available. The full Silver application is now available on the website
Thank you to the V.O.I.C.E. Committee and our supporters. We couldn’t have done it without a fantastic team effort.
The LGBTQIA+ network launch and “A is for Ally” panel discussion event was very well attended. Congratulations to David Bryant on the success of the A for Ally discussion event which included interactive activities including voting via mobile phone with instant results available and this created new discussions. It was felt that this type of event could be expanded to more areas within the University and include all members of staff.
And some more great news, David is our new Deputy Chair of the V.O.I.C.E. Committee
LGBT+ Event - 16th August (WWCRC café)
The V.O.I.C.E. Committee together with the ICS Social Committee held a LGBTQIA+ event in the WWCRC café to celebrate Pride and the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall. David Bryant hosted, and this event was followed up with a hugely successful, interactive LGBTQIA+ panel event in October. You can also join the newly set up Garscube LGBT+ Network group on Yammer (UofG)
LGBT+ Panel Event – 11th October
Wellbeing Week
Our Wellbeing Week was a HUGE success. Jacqui Coutts provided massages, Dr Bike came to Garscube, there was yoga, walks, running and even some UofG ebikes! Not forgetting our healthy potluck lunch and the enormous amount of (free) fruit we got through! Another wellbeing week is planned for the new year.
Athena SWAN Seminar Series
Dr Maddie Breeze (University of Strathclyde) and Dr Barbara Read (University of Glasgow) gave an excellent talk on “Overcoming Imposter Syndrome” on the 26th September in the CRUK Beatson Institute Lecture Theatre. This informative event was very well attended, and it was clear that feelings of impostor syndrome are common among both staff and students.
Future seminars are currently being planned for 2020.
PhD/MSc Students News
PhD/MSc Student News
PhD Student News
PhD Forum Update from Liam Hayman
The PhD forum has been quiet since summer, but we have some great speakers lined up between now and July, with more in the works. As always, pizza and drinks will be provided. Remember, everybody is welcome at PhD forum events, not just PhDs.
All events are at 4pm in the lecture theatre on the last Friday of a month, unless specified otherwise. Emails will be sent out for all events and I will pop posters in lifts so that you don’t miss out!
January 2020 – Glasgow Science Festival - Deborah McNeill, the director of GSF, will talk about the Glasgow Science Festival in Action public engagement internship that she runs. The internship is four days, spread over four months, and culminates in presenting activities to the public during the festival. I did this internship last year with others from ICS and I highly recommend it!
February 2020 – Equate Scotland will be speaking to us about unconscious bias in STEM and giving an intro into some of the workshops that they run, aimed at empowering women within STEM and dealing with various issues that can arise. If interest is high enough after this event, we hope to have them return to run specific workshops.
July 2020 – Antibody Analytics - Andrew Baron, the Director of Operations, will be speaking to us about assay development and how PhDs can move into such work. It will be antibody based of course, but useful to people interested in assay development of any nature.
PostDoc Forum Update
We (Steph, Sarah, Tobi and Miryam) are the organising committee for the PostDoc Forum.
For those who don't know the PostDoc Forum, this is a biweekly event where we aim to cover topics relevant to PostDocs. This includes getting an insight into different career paths (previous invited speakers included an editor, a medical writer, industry representatives and people who chose a career in academics), sharing exciting methods, shaping your soft skills as well as contributing to the discussion on how to improve PostDoc Welfare and change our workplace for the better. Not to forget, we also throw social events to help Networking between PostDocs. In the past we successfully organised a boardgame night, pub quizzes and a murder mystery scavenger hunt.
Additionally, we run a well-attended and fruitful annual PostDoc Conference together with the PostDocs from the IGMM in Edinburgh with the location alternating between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Currently all of us are based at the Beatson Institute but we are hoping to recruit some PostDocs from the WWCRC/ICS to join our team. If you are interested and maybe have some ideas for topics that we could cover or if you have any questions then email: postdoc-society@beatson.gla.ac.uk or m.mueller@beatson.gla.ac.uk
PhD/Student/VIVA news
Amy Muir recently started her PhD with Chris Halsey’s group investigating clinical heterogeneity in Philadelphia positive (Ph+) ALL. Her project will attempt to identify cellular and molecular markers of CML-like Ph+ALL with the goal to develop clinically useful tools for identifying Ph+ALL subtypes at diagnosis. It is hypothesised that CML-like and standard Ph+ALL differ transcriptionally and by cell of origin resulting in different responses to therapy, particularly with respect to the presence of drug-resistant stem or progenitor cells. Understanding where the Philadelphia chromosome arises in terms of lineage commitment may direct treatment of CML-like Ph+ALL and highlight if stem cell directed therapy is needed for cure.
Originally from Kilmarnock, she completed her honours degree in immunology at the University of Glasgow in 2016 and after graduating, took up a research scientist role in industry. During her 3 years as a research scientist, she had the opportunity to publish in a high impact journal and speak at her first conference at Great Ormond Street.
In her spare time Amy enjoys practising and teaching yoga. Qualifying as a Hatha Raja teacher from the Classical Yoga School in 2019, she mostly teaches Ashtanga to adults of all ages and abilities. Amy loves the balance it brings to her life and tries to share this with other people by teaching meditation and mindfulness classes. She is also a part time visual artist, with some of herwork featured in the GIST magazine autumn 2019 edition.
Her PIs are Dr Chris Halsey, Dr Gillian Horne, Dr Vignir Helgason and Prof Mhairi Copland, and she can be found on the 3rd floor of the Wolfson Wohl or the Paul O'Gorman. Email: 2015350M@student.gla.ac.uk
Megan Quince Thank you all for welcoming me to the Institute of Cancer Sciences. I have just started a PhD in Kristina Kirschner's laboratory where I will study the role of notch signalling in secondary senescence. I look forward to getting to know everyone during my time here and most importantly doing some good research! Email: 2412545Q@student.gla.ac.uk
My name is Assya Legrini, I studied biomedical sciences in The University of Liverpool, where I worked on gemcitabine resistance in pancreatic cancer. I then spent a year in industry working in an explorative neurology research hub looking at Targeted Secretion Inhibitors. I'm now doing a PhD with Nigel Jamieson at the WWCRC, looking at the immune landscape post-chemotherapy in PDAC. Email: assya96@hotmail.co.uk
I am Fei Yan from M34 Kristina Kirschner's lab. I am a clinician from China, I have accomplished a research on the effects of ATRA on the resistance of all transretinoic acid on APL mice models. I have also finished MSc Cancer Science here in Glasgow. Email: 2340492Y@student.gla.ac.uk
Teresa Glauner has started as a Masters student in Seth Coffelt’s lab. She started her scientific career in Heidelberg (Germany) as a BSc Student in Biological Sciences. During the program she spent an additional year as an Erasmus student in Manchester where she appreciated Britain’s high-quality research environment. After her Bachelor thesis at the German Cancer Research Institute she continued her studies as a Masters Student in Molecular Medicine in Uppsala (Sweden) to further study biomedical aspects of cancer. For her final Master thesis she recently joined Dr Coffelt’s group where she is working with Dr Sarah Edwards on the pro-metastatic function of NKG2D and IL-1b signalling pathways in gdT-cells in breast cancer metastasis. In the future, she plans to pursue a PhD program with a particular focus on the complexity of cancer in the UK. Email: teresa.glauner@gmx.de
Erin Cumming joined David Bryant’s group recently. Email: 2028768C@student.gla.ac.uk
Lauren Hope joined POG as a PhD student working with Professor Mhairi Copland, Dr Helen Wheadon and Dr Catherine Berry.
McKenzie Bell joined POG as an intercalated BMedSci student working with Professor Mhairi Copland.
Taeju Park joined POG as a PhD student working with Dr Heather Jorgensen and Dr Xu Huang.
Salihanur Darici joined POG as a UNIMORE funded PhD student returning from Italy for her 2nd/3rd year study here- Prof. Sandra Marmiroli (Italy)/Dr Xu Huang/Dr Heather Jorgensen and Dr Gillian Horne.
Hassan Almuhanna joined POG as a PhD student with Dr Alison Michie.
Myint Myat Khine Aung joined POG as a Masters student for 1 year with Dr Karen Keeshan.
Congratulations to the students who have recently completed their VIVAs.
Jane Bugler (David Vetrie)
Grace McGregor (Owen Sansom)
Natasha Malik (Alison Michie)
Stephan Dreyer (Andrew Biankin)
Matthew Massett (Xu Huang)
PGR graduations took place on 3rd December. Many congratulations to all.
(Heather Jorgensen, Alison Michie, Leena Wright, Natasha Malik, Taeju Park)
MSc Student News
MSc student graduations also took place on 3rd December. Very well done to all.
(Joanne Edwards, Helen Wheadon and MSc Students)
Publications
Publications
Claudiani S, Metelli S, Kamvar R, Szydlo R, Khan A, Byrne J, Gallipoli P, Bulley SJ, Horne GA, Rothwell K, Copland M, Clark RE, Khorashad JS, Foroni L, Milojkovic D, Apperley JF.
Burt R, Dey A, Aref S, Aguiar M, Akarca A, Bailey K, Day W, Hooper S, Kirkwood A, Kirschner K, Lee SW, Lo Celso C, Manji J, Mansour MR, Marafioti T, Mitchell RJ, Muirhead RC, Cheuk Yan Ng K, Pospori C, Puccio I, Zuborne-Alapi K, Sahai E, Fielding AK.
Tumour Dormancy and Reawakening: Opportunities and Challenges, Trends in Cancer (2019)
Boire A, Coffelt Seth, Sergio A. Quezada, Vander Heiden M, Weeraratna A.
Alanazi B, Munje CR, Rastogi N, Williamson AJK, Taylor S, Hole PS, Hodges M, Doyle M, Baker S, Gilkes AF, Knapper S, Pierce A, Whetton AD, Darley RL, Tonks A.
Neutrophil Maturity in Cancer.
Mackey JBG, Coffelt SB, Carlin LM.
mTORC1 activity is essential for erythropoiesis and B cell lineage commitment.
Malik N, Dunn KM, Cassels J, Hay J, Estell C, Sansom OJ, Michie AM.
Patel R, Brzezinska EA, Repiscak P, Ahmad I, Mui E, Gao M, Blomme A, Harle V, Tan EH, Malviya G, Mrowinska A, Loveridge CJ, Rushworth LK, Edwards J, Ntala C, Nixon C, Hedley A, Mackay G, Tardito S, Sansom OJ, Leung HY.
Yousafzai YM, Smith L, Smith A, Bhatti S, Gardiner M, Cousins A, Fee F, Chudleigh S, Spence A, Taylor W, Heaney N, Gibson B, Graham G, Halsey C.
Yousafzai YM, Smith L, Smith A, Bhatti S, Gardiner M, Cousins A, Fee F, Chudleigh S, Spence A, Taylor W, Heaney N, Gibson B, Graham G, Halsey C.
Gomez-Roman N, Chong MY, Chahal SK, Caragher SP, Jackson MR, Stevenson KH, Dongre SA, Chalmers AJ.
Should nitrous oxide ever be used in Oncology patients receiving methotrexate therapy?
Forster VJ, Bell G, Halsey C.
Reasons to be testing: the dawn of complex molecular profiling in routine oncology practice.
Beer PA, Cooke SL, Chang DK, Biankin AV.
Mitochondria as multifaceted regulators of cell death.
Bock FJ, Tait SWG.
Pseudokinases: a tribble-edged sword.
Richmond L, Keeshan K.
Smith EL, Somma D, Kerrigan D, McIntyre Z, Cole JJ, Liang KL, Kiely PA, Keeshan K, Carmody RJ.Nucleic Acids Res. 2019 Oct 10.
Patricia E. Collins, Domenico Somma, David Kerrigan, Felicity Herrington, Karen Keeshan, Robert J. B. Nibbs, and Ruaidhrí J. Carmody
Subcellular Fractionation of Primary Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Cells to Monitor Nuclear/Cytoplasmic Protein Trafficking. Hay J, Moles MW, Cassels J, Michie AM. J Vis
van Wyk HC, Roseweir A, Alexander P, Park JH, Horgan PG, McMillan DC, Edwards J.
Targeting DNA repair in gliomas.
Beckta JM, Bindra RS, Chalmers AJ.
Quinn JA, Bennett L, Patel M, Frixou M, Park JH, Roseweir A, Horgan PG, McMillan DC, Edwards J.
McGregor GH, Campbell AD, Fey SK, Tumanov S, Sumpton D, Rodriguez Blanco G, Mackay G, Nixon C, Vazquez A, Sansom OJ, Kamphorst JJ.
Jackstadt R, van Hooff SR, Leach JD, Cortes-Lavaud X, Lohuis JO, Ridgway RA, Wouters VM, Roper J, Kendall TJ, Roxburgh CS, Horgan PG, Nixon C, Nourse C, Gunzer M, Clark W, Hedley A, Yilmaz OH, Rashid M, Bailey P, Biankin AV, Campbell AD, Adams DJ, Barry ST, Steele CW, Medema JP, Sansom OJ.
Pancreatic Cancer: From Genome Discovery to PRECISION-Panc.
Dreyer SB, Jamieson NB, Morton JP, Sansom OJ, Biankin AV, Chang DK.
Park JH, van Wyk H, McMillan DC, Edwards J, Orange C, Horgan PG, Roxburgh CS.
Epigenetic Reprogramming and Emerging Epigenetic Therapies in CML.
Bugler J, Kinstrie R, Scott MT, Vetrie D.
Hayatigolkhatmi K, Padroni G, Su W, Fang L, Gómez-Castañeda E, Hsieh YC, Jackson L, Pellicano F, Burley GA, Jørgensen HG.
PRECISION-Panc: the Next Generation Therapeutic Development Platform for Pancreatic Cancer. Dreyer SB, Jamieson NB, Cooke SL, Valle JW, McKay CJ, Biankin AV, Chang DK.
ICS Social Committee
Events update
During October the Social Committee ran a series of events supporting Mental Health Awareness, starting with a Mindfulness session run by student Amy Muir which was well attended and a great way to start the week. Following this was a friendly walk around the campus and tea and cake in the café where there was some delicious home baking. Thank you to those of you who donated their time to bake and raise money for such a great cause. The week ended with some relaxing yoga which took place over the lunch break.
Mental ill health is something that many of us will encounter over the course of our lifetime. When you’re living with a mental health problem, or supporting someone who is, having access to the right information about a condition, treatment options, or practical issues is vital. As well as talking to your GP, there are many different types of support & resources available to University of Glasgow staff & students.
University of Glasgow self-help resources: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/counselling/self-help
The Big White Wall. Use your GUID & password to log in: https://www.bigwhitewall.com
Movember
Thanks to staff and students for their support and donations towards Movember and prostate cancer during a coffee afternoon on 19 November.
A Christmas Pizza and Wine event was organised on Wednesday 4 December, WWCRC Café
The Social Committee welcome new ideas and suggestions for the events calendar. Events can only run through the support of our ICS colleagues. If you enjoy attending the ICS social events and can spare half an hour or so a few times per year, why not consider joining the committee and help keep our events fun & fresh for all.
cancersci-ins-social@glasgow.ac.uk
Useful Information
Can I Recycle?...
To make recycling on campus as simple as possible the University has developed 'Can I recycle?' to help with most commonly mishandled waste items. Please visit the site.
https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/sustainability/wasterecyclingreuse/azrecycle/
3D Modelling: Taking University of Glasgow Research Into Virtual Worlds
UofG School of Life Sciences promote imaging-based research at the College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences (CMVLS). They make accurate 3D models, VR scenes and 3D prints from confocal data.
There is a lot of 3D microscopy data that isn’t being used, so SoLS have started displaying images as a virtual reality gallery, and people can request to use any models that might be of interest.
Models can be viewed here: https://sketchfab.com/GLS
Research Management Team Update
The TRM team welcomes the return of Kim Moran Jones, who will be taking up post as Senior Project Coordinator within ICS. Kim hopes to work from the Wolfson Wohl office one day per week.
There are several funder deadlines in January (starting with MRC on 8th Jan).
As the office will be closed 24 December – 6 January inclusive, please send any costing request forms for January deadlines AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
Please send to Christine Weaver in the first instance. Kindly note that applications with a FEC exceeding £1M need COG approval therefore as much notice as possible is needed.
Thanks for your cooperation!
Open Access
The REF open access policy applies to all articles or conference proceedings with an ISSN that are accepted on or after 1 April 2016. To be eligible for submission for the forthcoming REF, these articles and proceedings should be deposited in a repository as soon after the point of acceptance as is possible, and no later than three months after they were first published online.
This applies to all articles and conference proceedings that could be considered a new insight into research. Items that are not peer-reviewed are also subject to this policy.
The version of the text deposited must be the author final version, that is, the text before any publisher marks or logos are added.
If the authors do not want the article to be included in REF, the Research Team can record that and remove papers from future REF compliance reports.
The pre-defined exceptions to the policy can be found here: REF Guidance on Submissions