Cell Transformation Research Unit

Human lung cancer cells with p53 (green) in the nucleus and YB-1 (red) in the cytoplasm






Some of the most common differences between cancer cells and normal cells are that cancer cells have markedly different growth properties and are resistant to the processes that would normally lead to cell death.  This, combined with their ability to keep on multiplying an unlimited number of times (see Cancer Research Unit), make cancer cells very robust and difficult to kill.

The regulation of cell growth and survival is the broad focus of the Cell Transformation Unit.  In particular, our studies centre on the functions of a most important gene called p53.  This gene normally protects us from getting cancer but it is often faulty in cancers.  We are trying to understand some of the signalling processes that tell p53 what to do.  In this way we hope to learn how to harness p53 to develop better ways of killing cancer cells, leaving normal cells untouched.

In addition, we are interested in what genetic factors make some people more susceptible to getting cancer than others.  Again, some of this work also focuses on p53.  The p53 gene is not identical in all individuals as there are very small differences in the DNA code.  We are studying these differences to see if individuals with one form of p53 are more cancer prone than others.

For more information see the staff profiles and projects pages.