Newcastle University

Qualifications

Bsc. (Hons) in Human Genetics

MRes in Medical and Molecular Biosciences

PhD entitled "Gene expression analysis of stem cells of the prostate and investigation of these signatures in prostate cancer progression"

Memberships

• ISSCR
• BACR
• EACR

Roles and Responsibilities

Training and laboratory supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Research Interests

Prostate Stem Cells
Prostate Cancer Stem Cells
Malignant Transformation
Lineage Tracking of Stem cells in situ

Esteem Indicators

Awarded "Best Talk" at the November 2011 NESCI research day with associated travel award 

Awarded "Best non-clinical presenter" at the joint BAUS/SARS meeting in Dublin 2011

Chosen by the NESCI Executive to represent NESCI at the ICSCN Postdoc Symposium in Toronto at the ICSCN meeting 2011, with an associated travel grant to set up collaborations within Canada

Funding

Funded by Cancer Research UK

• Blackwood JK, Williamson SC, Greaves LC, Wilson L, Rigas AC, Sandher R, Pickard RS, Robson CN, Turnbull DM, Taylor RW, Heer R. In situ lineage tracking of human prostatic epithelial stem cell fate reveals a common clonal origin for basal and luminal cells. Journal of Pathology 2011, 225(2), 181-188.
• Williamson SC, Rigas AC, Robson CN, Heer R, Heer R. An update on the prostate cancer stem cell model-CD133+ve stem cell enriched human prostate cells express active androgen receptor. In: British Journal of Surgery: Annual Meeting of the Society of Academic and Research Surgery. 2011, Dublin, Ireland: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
• Williamson SC, Mitter R, Rigas AC, Robson CN, Heer R. Comparative meta-analysis of the human prostate stem cell transcriptome demonstrates that progenitor cells are the site of malignant transformation. In: British Journal of Surgery: Annual Meeting of the Society of Academic and Research Surgery. 2011, Dublin, Ireland: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
• Pal D, Robson CN, Williamson SC, Nayernia K, Soleimanpour-Lichaei HR, Heer R. Stem-cell regulatory protein Piwil2 enriches for known stem-cell and cancer stem-cell markers in prostate cancer cells. In: British Journal of Surgery: Annual Meeting of the Society of Academic and Research Surgery. 2011, Dublin, Ireland: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
• Rigas AC, Jaiswal N, Williamson SC, Pickard R, Robson CN, Heer R. Side population in human bladder cancer enriches for cancer stem cells that can be targeted by MAPK inhibition. In: British Journal of Surgery: Annual Meeting of the Society of Academic and Research Surgery. 2011, Dublin, Ireland: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
• Pal D, Williamson SC, Robson CN, Rigas AC, Heer R. Characterising potential for pluripotency induction in human prostate tissue. In: British Journal of Surgery: Annual Meeting of the Society of Academic and Research Surgery. 2011, Dublin, Ireland: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.