Help us to Develop Yorkshire's only Brain Tumour Research Laboratory
Andrea's Gift has joined forces with Leeds children's cancer charity, Candlelighters to fund a new brain tumour research lab - one of only a few in the country. The lab is based at the University of Leeds, Institute for Molecular Medicine (LIMM)
Dr Sean Lawler, an eminent neuro-oncolgy scientist leads the group called "Translational Neuro-oncology Group at LIMM" and this is an overview of the work that he plans to carry out over the next 5 years.
Sean's vision is build a research group dedicated to identifying novel approaches that will improve the outcome for patients with brain tumours, including the most aggressive and difficult to treat of brain tumours, glioblastoma. Brain tumors affect both adults and children; in fact, paediatric brain tumors are now the leading cause of cancer mortality in children, and the new research group will be looking closely at this problem.
The lab will be highly translational and will position itself between basic research discoveries and their applicability to patients. The scientific team will collect tissue from every (consenting) brain tumour patient who has surgery at Leeds General Infirmary. The tissue will be analysed and cells will be grown and in time, projects will be developed that correlate how each patient responds to therapy. The ability to identify the detailed molecular alterations in tumours will allow the team to select patients for appropriate therapies and to understand mechanisms of resistance to therapy, and ways to overcome that resistance. Sean and his team will be working closely with other researchers and state of the art equipment at Leeds Institute for Molecular Medicine, as well as local clinicians including neuro oncologists, pathologists, neurosurgeons and clinical trials specialists. The ultimate aim will be to develop the group into one that is nationally and internationally recognised as a leading centre for translational brain tumour research.
Sean began his research career looking at basic molecular biology of human cells, with a particular interest into an area called "signal transduction" - which is the study of how cells relay messages from the outside to the inside, and then how the cell interprets those messages. This may tell them to grow, die, or move for example. In simple terms, these pathways are relevant in many aspects of life, and are also recognised as key elements that allow cancer cells to grow.
In 2000, Sean moved to Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston where he worked with the well-known neurosurgeon and clinician-scientist Nino Chiocca. This is where he began to learn about brain tumours, and how difficult they are to treat effectively. To Sean, the most striking aspect was that molecular biology had reached the point of sophistication where it was possible to envisage his skills and knowledge being directly applicable to an incurable and devastating disease.
In 2004, Sean moved to Ohio State University Medical Center to take up an independent faculty position and he decided to devote 100% of his research efforts to finding novel and effective solutions for brain tumours.
His work so far has examined two main areas, one being the migration of glioblastoma cells into normal brain tissue of the patient. This is a major problem, and prevents complete surgical removal of these tumours. A challenge we must overcome is how to therapeutically target and destroy these cells. Sean has identified a family of drugs that completely block glioma cell migration in lab models, and that can prolong survival in animal models of glioblastoma. The next step is to explore if this type of treatment can progress to a clinical trial.
A second area of research has been to examine the function of recently identified cellular components called microRNAs - these are important regulators of cell behaviour, and are clearly altered in cancer. Sean has identified many alterations in microRNAs specific to glioblastoma, and is in the process of investigating whether these alterations can either be used therapeutically, or at least can tell us more about this disease. Data so far supports both of these ideas, and he has become reputed for his work in this area.
The plan for the Leeds neuro oncology lab is to build on initial local support from the charities Andrea’s Gift and Candlelighters, and to become a more extensive and diverse research group, that examines all aspects of brain cancer, and that is devoted to improving the outcome for the patients who suffer from these tumours. We need to make progress against these cancers, which are less well studied than some others, but affect both adults, children, and their families.
Andrea's Gift - Leading the fight against Brain Tumours in Yorkshire
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