Val Brunton
Signalling and the regulation of cancer growth and metastasis
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.
People |
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| Val Brunton |
Principal Investigator and Professor of Cancer Therapeutics |
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Georgia Dodd |
PhD student |
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Meredyth Griffin |
PhD student with Donald Salter |
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Laura Gomez-Cuadrado |
PhD student |
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Kristel Sepp |
PhD student with Alison Hulme |
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Anastasia Kapara |
PhD student with Karen Faulds, University of Strathclyde |
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Martin Lee |
Post-doctoral Scientist |
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Henry Beetham |
Post-doctoral Scientist |
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Jayne Culley |
Research Assistant |
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Morwenna Muir |
Research Assistant |
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Emily Webb |
Post-doctoral Scientist with Margaret Frame |
| Roza Masalmeh | Post-doctoral Scientist with Margaret Frame |
| Virginia Alvarez Garcia | Post-doctoral Scientist with Margaret Frame |
Contact
Scientific Themes
Metastasis, drug resistance, adhesion signalling
Technology Expertise
Mouse models of cancer, multimodal fluorescence and Raman imaging, cell biology