NeoPhore -Dynamic Neoantigen Evolution
Dr Mark Bodman-Smith (St. George’s University) and the Institute for Cancer Vaccines & Immunotherapies (ICVI)
Dr Luis Javier Martinez Gonzalez and Dr Maria Jesus Alvarez Cubero
(GENYO-University of Granada, Spain)
Dr Garima Jain
(Centre for Genetic Disorders, Banaras Hindu University, India)
Dr Garima Jain works on prostate cancer biology on three fronts, including cancer detection, cancer prevention, and cancer therapy. During her research, she identified IKK1 as a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer. This research helped her understand the value of early detection and prevention in the field of cancer biology, which established the groundwork for her upcoming research. With an interest in finding novel cancer preventive mechanisms, they tested several phytomolecules and have produced important findings demonstrating that guggulsterone, a phytomolecule, may be a potent chemopreventive drugs that can stop the progression of prostate cancer by boosting the expression of the tumor suppressor gene. The findings of this study led to a collaboration with our team at St George’s University of London, where the same work is being expanded on 3D organ models. To address the need of non-invasive early diagnosis of prostate cancer we are investigating urine and blood samples of prostate cancer patients to discover a unique biomarker for the early detection of prostate cancer in the Indian population. We are currently working to validate the biomarker in both the Indian and international populations. A Lab-on-chip product will be created using the research’s findings.
The PRACTICAL Consortium
The Prostate Cancer Association Group to Investigate Cancer Associated Alterations in the Genome (PRACTICAL) consortium was established in September 2008. It is formed by a collaborative group of researchers interested in inherited risk of prostate cancer with the goal of identifying genes that may be related to the risk of prostate cancer. The aims of the consortium are to combine data from many studies to provide a reliable assessment of the risks associated with these genes, and to validate new findings.
Dr Clara Cieza-Borrella has been involved in the Consortium since she joined the Institute of Cancer Research in 2014 as postdoctoral researcher in the Oncogenetics team. However, since she became independent, she has stayed involved as Principal Investigator of a satellite research group working on functional validation of genetics results.