Cancer Diagnosis and Prevention
This is BRC’s largest research group working towards improving the diagnosis and management of human cancers. Cancer research areas in the centre include investigation of inflammation and steroids, p53 tumor suppressor (Krstic-Demonacos), obesity, mitosis (Topham), cancer stem cells, cancer metabolism, tumour recurrence and metastasis, drug resistance, clinical trials (Lisanti), ageing, senescence, drug discovery, antibiotics, drug repurposing (Sotgia), DNA repair, DNA Glycosylase, (Elder), cancer RNA biomarkers, genomics, genetics (Mukhopadhyay) and cancer nanobiotechnology (Krpetic). In addition, cancer research in the centre is focussed on leukemia/haematology, bioinformatics, transcription factors (Krstic-Demonacos, Aziz), childhood cancers, lung health (Arrigo, Namvar, Smyth, Topham, Krstic-Demonacos).
Several groups have interest in designing and synthesising of novel compounds for cancer therapies. This includes commercial development of bioreductive alkylating agents, two-photon activation of stilbenes, development of antivascular agents, synthesis of novel chalcones to combat childhood cancers, green synthetic methodologies (Hadfield), free radicals, chromatography, mass spectrometry, biomarkers (Podmore), medicinal chemistry, cancer, glycomimetics (Wilkinson, Rossington), and nanotechnology (Krpetic) as well as computer modelling techniques/chemistry (Akinshina) and glycobiology, drug design and discovery, molecular modelling, tumour angiogenesis (Pye).
This area of research is supported by the FoxPoint Foundation and Lunella Biotech spin-out pharma company, co-founded by Sotgia and Lisanti to develop new therapeutic strategies for cancer. Numerous collaborations at the international level include Vietnam, Thailand and Japan, Italy and USA and many others. Numerous researchers collaborate and are funded through joint grants with local hospitals such as Blackpool Victoria Teaching Hospital, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and Wythenshawe Hospital. In addition, KidsCan Charitable Trust funds several BRC members research into childhood cancer.