Research on Ageing in the NICR
In most tissues the incidence of cancer rises sharply with age. We are studying why this is and are developing milder treatments for cancer that older people tolerate better.
The staff listed below are involved in age-related research in the following areas:
- Dr Helen Reeves is undertaking research into improved assessment of patients with hepatocellular cancer, many of whom are elderly and have co-morbidities which make treatment difficult. She is also studying the role of alternative splicing of Kruppel-like factor 6 (KLF6) in protection from chronic injury and an increased risk of cancer.
- Professor Craig Robson leads a group which aims to identify new drug targets in elderly patients with urological cancers
- Professor Tom Lennard has produced important new guidelines for the pre-operative assessment of older patients which has greatly reduced the morbidity associated with oncological surgery .
- Dr Jim Allan is conducting studies into the role of mutagenesis and DNA repair in haematological malignancies in the elderly.
- Professor Nicola Curtin is investigating DNA damage signalling and repair and its therapeutic manipulation, including age and gender-related differences in PARP activity that may impinge on the activity of the longevity-associated enzymes, sirtuins and inflammation-induced tissue damage.
- At the epigenetic level Dr Gordon Strathdee is investigating ageing related epigenetic changes as a potential underlying cause of susceptibility to age related disease, including cancer.
- Dr Chris Redfern, working in collaboration with Dr Daryl Shanley in the Institute of Ageing and Health, is looking at stress signalling pathways in cancer and normal cells and how the capacity to adapt to stress at a cellular level changes with age.
