Who are you a fellow for?
I’m funded by the North West Cancer Research charity and I am based at the Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine within the Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology.
When did you start your fellowship?
November 2019.
What were you doing prior to your fellowship?
I had taken a career break to care for my young children. The last long-term position I held I was senior postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Sussex at the Genome Damage and Stability Centre (until 2016). I moved to the North-west for extra support from my family and managed to find a maternity cover position in Dr Jason Parsons’ lab (2017).
Why did you choose to undertake your fellowship with the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences?
The 6-month maternity cover at the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences was incredibly useful to understand the current research priorities taking place at the University and find out about the research community, support and facilities. Furthermore, I could envisage how my research interests aligned with the world-leading Head and Neck Oncology and Radiobiology work taking place here. Dr Jason Parsons was supportive in discussing the research proposal and offering to be a mentor for the fellowship application.
How does North West Cancer Research fund your work?
The fellowship is generous in terms of funding (up to £500,000) and time (3-5 years). This funding covers my salary, money for consumables and importantly, bench fees and stipend for a PhD student. There is also provision for travel and conferences. I am grateful to be awarded the first CDRF awarded by the charity as this is a fantastic opportunity to embark on novel research and establish an independent career.
What do you study/what is the aim of your research?
I study a family of enzymes called PARPs (poly-ADP-ribose polymerases or, more correctly, ADP-ribosyl- transferases). They are involved in several different cellular functions, including DNA repair. Importantly, PARP inhibitors (drugs that target PARP1 and PARP2) are successful at killing tumours with BRCA mutations and are currently being used in the treatment of certain breast and ovarian cancers. Since these inhibitors are not toxic to normal cells, they are well tolerated by patients unlike traditional chemotherapeutic agents.
We are investigating whether existing PARP inhibitors could be used to improve the effectiveness of radiotherapy particularly in radioresistant tumours such as Head and Neck cancers. Furthermore, there are other members of the PARP family which are involved in cancer biology and excitingly, new drugs targeting these enzymes are being developed so we are also investigating whether these new generation of PARP inhibitors could be useful therapeutics in the future.
What inspired you to look at this field?
From the Head and Neck Oncology group, I learned of the challenges facing Head and Neck Cancer treatments in particular radio- and chemo- resistance which results in patients that being treated with harsh chemotherapy agents. If we could weaken the cancer cell’s ability to tolerate and repair the DNA damage caused by radiation and chemotherapy, then these treatments could be more effective.