Cancer Cell Research
Group Leader: Prof Mike Berridge
It is a sobering fact that despite decades of research and billions of dollars of funding, cancer death rates have changed little over the past 50 years. What's more, cancer remissions are often transient, drug resistance a major problem and drug withdrawal can result in an aggressive return of the disease. New evidence suggests that part of the reason for this is that current cancer therapies are targeting the wrong cells.
The focus of most anticancer drug treatments is on killing the rapidly-dividing cells that form the bulk of a tumour. However, these treatments do not get rid of the ‘cancer stem cells' that give rise to the disease, so the tumour is able to grow back. Like the stem cells that shape the development of the various tissues and organs in our body, cancer stem cells have the unique property of self-renewal and can divide indefinitely.
We have shown that cancer cells alter their metabolism to accommodate hypoxia and nutrient limitations, and use plasma membrane electron transport (PMET) to support these changes. Our research aims to understand the role of PMET in cancer stem cell survival and self-renewal, and to develop drugs that compromise this energy support system.
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