Val Brunton

Signalling and the regulation of cancer growth and metastasis

V.Brunton — Professor Val Brunton - Professor of Cancer Therapeutics

Research in a Nutshell

Tumour cells metastasise via a series of discrete biological processes that allow cells to disseminate from the primary tumour, move and colonise distant sites within the body. Our research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms whereby tumour cells can metastasise and in particular how adhesion networks drive metastatic spread. More recently we have also become interested in how these same adhesion pathways regulate the tumour microenvironment.

We use a range of protein/peptide technologies, genetic intervention and high-definition biological analysis including mouse models of cancer and quantitative intra-vital imaging that permits visualisation of multiple cancer cell phenotypes in vivo. This provides information on the molecular regulators of cancer processes linked to invasion, metastasis and survival in the tumour environment and allows us to monitor drug efficacy and mechanism of action of new molecularly targeted agents to enable identification of more effective treatments.

Research Programme

People
Val Brunton	Principal Investigator and Professor of Cancer Therapeutics
Nicole Barth	Postdoctoral Scientist
Annabel Black	PhD Student
Esme Bullock	Postdoctoral Scientist
Giovana Carrasco Gonzalez	Postdoctoral Scientist
Julián Corzo Ochoa	MRes Student
Molly Danks	PhD Student
Muhammad Furqan	Postdoctoral Scientist (with Neil Carragher/Margaret Frame)
Rashi Krishna	PhD Student (with Ailith Ewing)
Martin Lee	Imaging Engineer
Spyros Letsios	PhD Student (with Alison Hulme)
Piotr Manasterski	Postdoctoral Scientist
Morwenna Muir	Senior Technical Officer
Sana Shabbir	PhD Student
Kinga Suba	Postdoctoral Scientist (joint appointment Imperial College)
Emily Webb	Postdoctoral Scientist (with Margaret Frame)