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Androgen Signalling and Prostate Cancer

Androgen Signalling and Prostate Cancer team

Contact

Group lead
Prof Charlotte Bevan
+44 (0)20 7594 2135
charlotte.bevan@imperial.ac.uk
Twitter: @BevanLab

What we do

Prostate tumour growth is, at least initially, dependent on androgens. Treatment for inoperable disease therefore involves removing circulating androgens and opposing their action using antiandrogens. This is effective initially, but many patients relapse with potentially lethal, metastic "castrate-resistant" disease. Understanding the molecular events that lead to therapy resistance is vital for new therapies to be developed.

Why it is important

Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of male cancer deaths. Currently over 40,000 men in the UK are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. Our aims are to investigate mechanisms of prostate cancer development and progression, with emphasis on research leading to the development of new therapies or improvement in the application of existing therapies.

How it can benefit patients

Prostate cancer prognosis varies widely – some tumours are never life-threatening while others develop rapidly into lethal disease. Given the severity of side-effects of many drugs and the variation in response, it is important that patients and clinicians can make informed choices about which therapy to us. To facilitate this we are identifying appropriate biomarkers to stratify prostate tumours upon diagnosis, and models to identify potential side effects, as well as novel therapies.

Summary of current research

Evaluating androgen action in prostate cancer progression and therapy
Exploiting non-coding RNAs as therapeutic targets and stratification biomarkers in therapy-resistant prostate cancer
MicroRNA drivers of therapy resistance in Prostate Cancer
Engineering Novel Repressors for the Treatment of Prostate Cancer
Nuclear receptor signalling pathways in stratification and therapy for prostate cancer
A high-throughput and minimally invasive approach for diagnosis and prognosis of Cancer
3rd Nuclear Receptors Conference
EXOPRO Study
Tumour-microenvironment interactions in metastasis and therapy response

Job opportunities

There are currently two exciting opportunities to work on novel ways to improve treatment options in prostate cancer using synthetic cells! One opening is for a postdoctoral biologist working in our laboratories, and one is for a chemist based in our collaborator's lab at the White City campus.

Funders

Related Centres

Public engagement

Collaborators

External

Johann de Bono (Institute of Cancer Research)
Professor Karen Knudsen (University of Philadelphia/Sidney Kimmel Cancer Centre)
Professor Moray Campbell (Ohio State University)
Professor Gerhardt Attard (University College London)
Greg Brooke (University of Essex)
Paul Rennie (Vancouver Prostate Centre)
Professor Gail Risbridger (Monash University)
Professor Ian Mills (University of Oxford)
Dr Eileen Parkes (Queen’s University Belfast)
Professor Ros Eeles (Institute of Cancer Research)

Internal

Professor Hashim Ahmed
Professor Hector Keun
Professor Oscar Ces (Chemistry)
Professor Simak Ali
Professor Eric O. Aboagye
Dr Sylvain Ladame (Bioengineering)
Professor Joshua Edel (Chemistry)
Professor Alan Spivey (Chemistry)
Professor Daqing Ma (Anaesthetics)
Mr Mathias Winkler (Urology)
Pantelis Georgiou (Electrical Engineering)

For patients

Prostate Cancer UK - For information on prostate cancer, helplines manned by trained professionals as well as links to support groups and an online community
Cancer Research UK for statistics, information and support

PhD students

When we have funding for PhD studentships, we advertise them through central channels such as Find a PhD. Information is also available on the Surgery and Cancer study page. If no studentships are currently advertised, please get in touch with the group lead with proposed project titles to discuss further. Congratulations to Akifumi Shibakawa and Foteini Kalofonou who were awarded their PhDs in 2019 - it was fantastic to have you study with us and we look forward to hearing about your amazing careers!

Current PhD students:

Ieva Eringyte, PCF student - MicroRNA drivers of drug resistance in prostate cancer.

Sharmila Rana (with Hector Keun), PCUK student - MicroRNA networks in prostate cancer.

Theodora Constantin, MRC and President’s Award student - Transcriptional inhibition as a therapeutic approach in prostate cancer.

Tom Pataillot-Meakin, Cancer Research UK Centre student ((with Joshua Edel, Sylvain Ladame)) - Investigating size profiles of circulating cell-free nucleic acid as a biomarker for prostate cancer and validating hydrogel-filled nanopores as a method for their detection.

Joanna Zamarbide (Rosetrees student) - Identification of MicroRNAs that Alter Cell Death in Treatment-Resistant and -Responsive Breast Cancer: Towards Patient-Tailored Drugs and New Biomarkers.

Joseph Broomfield (with Pantelis Geourgiou, Melpomeni Kalofonou) - Lab-on-Chip System for Detection and Quantification of Circulating mRNA in Prostate Cancer using Isothermal Amplification Methods.