Personalised Medicine
The post-genomic era offers a great deal of potential for characterisation of many diseases and identification of their responses to therapy. Methodologies such as mass spectrometry and gel-based proteomics and gene expression arrays offer the potential for characterisation of disease derived samples using a huge number of proteins or genes. This detailed information, while providing a comprehensive overview of a disease state, also proves problematic in its complexity. One has to search through potentially hundreds of thousands of pieces of information for consistent features that address a clinical question in the population. If appropriate methodologies are applied there is the potential to develop a predictive signature that allows stratification of patients for personalised medicine and for the identification of mechanisms of response.
Professor Graham Ball has developed computational algorithms and models for the analysis of post genomic data for the purposes of identification of therapy response specific signatures. These have been applied to a range of disease/therapy states. Through CompanDX Ltd, a University spin-out company, Professor Graham Ball has interfaced these approaches with Phase two and Phase three clinical trials with commercial partners.
Professor Ellen Billett is interested in identifying protein biomarkers for a number of conditions/diseases, including neurodegenerative conditions (notably Parkinson's Disease) and pre-eclampsia. She has experience of fractionation and analysis of both solid tissues and body fluids and has used a range of proteomic methods, including differential in gel electrophoresis combined with peptide mass fingerprinting, to identify proteins of interest.
Professor Robert Rees is involved in the development of therapeutic cancer vaccines and cell therapies which have the potential to benefit patients. These therapies target antigens specifically expressed on patient tumour cells, taking account of patient tissue type (HLA/MHC) antigens.
It is therefore important to tailor vaccines according to patient criteria. Pre-clinical and clinical studies are undertaken to define effective cancer strategies and links developed between the JvGCRC and Anthony Nolan further explores Stem Cell therapy (using cells from human cord blood) for treatment of leukaemia.
Professor Nadia Chuzhanova focuses on in silico studies of mutability of repetitive DNA sequences in relation to human genetic disease and cancer. Understanding the mechanisms of disease-causing mutability of repeat is important for the development of novel therapeutic approaches. The methods developed have been applied to the analysis of mutations causing neurofibromas, Werner syndrome and other genetic disorders and cancers.
