Newcastle University

Current Work

My interest in the molecular mechanisms controlling gene expression in cancer cells prompted me to choose Newcastle in which to develop my research portfolio. The university houses the Northern Institute for Cancer Research in which I can utilise molecular biology techniques to answer clinically relevant questions in solid tumours.

I am particularly interested in tumours that retain wild-type p53, and how they are able to subvert alternative mechanisms resulting in aberrant cellular proliferation. My research themes include (i) why only some, not all, tumours have a clinical response to chemotherapeutic agents and (ii) why tumours that initially respond to chemotherapy eventually relapse resulting in treatment-resistant disease. I will collaborate with both clinicians and scientists to use prostate cancer as a model to test my ideas related to these problems, in the hope of eventually merging scientific discovery into the clinical field.

1: Logan IR, McNeill HV, Cook S, Lu X, Meek DW, Fuller-Pace FV, Lunec J, Robson CN. (2009) Heat shock factor-1 modulates p53 activity in the transcriptional response to
DNA damage. Nucleic Acids Res. 37(9):2962-73.

2: Logan IR, McNeill HV, Cook S, Lu X, Lunec J, Robson CN. (2007) Analysis of the MDM2 antagonist nutlin-3 in human prostate cancer cells. Prostate. 67(8):900-6.

3: Logan IR, Gaughan L, McCracken SR, Sapountzi V, Leung HY, Robson CN. (2006) Human PIRH2 enhances androgen receptor signaling through inhibition of histone deacetylase 1 and is overexpressed in prostate cancer. Mol Cell Biol. 26(17):6502-10.