Research

I have set up a research team devoted to cancer genetic studies and biomarker development, in particular in male urological cancers. The mission of the research team is to reduce mortality and morbidity of cancer patients by understanding cancer development and progression mechanisms and facilitating precision medicine through the development of efficient cancer detection, prognostic and treatment response prediction/monitoring biomarkers.

Our past work has been mainly focused on identification of genetic alterations and genetic mechanisms in cancer development, progression and therapeutic response. Recently, our research work moved into circulation biomarker development, including CTCs, exosome and other cells, for cancer diagnosis, prognosis and prediction/monitoring of cancer progression and therapeutic response.

There are currently two main research areas of interest:

• Biomarker discovery and clinical applications, focusing on circulating biomarkers (CTCs, exosomes and other cancer associated circulating cells) for cancer diagnosis, prognosis and prediction/monitoring of cancer progression and therapeutic response.
• Mechanisms of prostate cancer metastasis and therapeutic resistance.

Other Activities

• Senior Editor: American Journal of Cancer Research
• Editorial Board Member: The Open Breast Cancer Journal
• Editorial Board Member: Journal of Cancer Research Updates
• Scientific assessment committee member: France national cancer research programme Canceropole (2007-2014)
• Research grant reviewer for funding bodies, such as British Medical Research Council (MRC), British National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), UK Prostate Action, Prostate Cancer Research Charity, National Cancer Institute of France, International Association of Cancer Research, Hong Kong Research Grants Council
• Referee of scientific journals such as Oncogene, J Path, Gene Chromosome Cancer, Br J Cancer, International J Cancer, Carcinogenesis, PloS One, BMC Cancer, Histopathology, Clinical Cancer Research and America Journal of Pathology
• Member of prostate cancer ICGC consortium
  Member of PRACTICAL prostate cancer predisposition study international consortium
• Active Member of American Association for Cancer Research
• Honorable Professor, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
• Honorable Professor, Naning Medical University, China
• Visiting Professor, Zhengzhou University Medical College, China

Major Funding

• 2024-2026 - Prostate Cancer UK, 'Personalised Epigenetic Reprogramming for Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer' £640,153.00 (QMUL lead with £280,065)
• 2021-2026 - Prostate Cancer UK, 'Circulating tumour cells as biomarkers for treatment stratification of localised prostate cancer,' £749,527 (leading Co-PI)
• 2019-2021- CRUK Cancer Early Detection Primer award, 'Exploring platelet miRNA as a novel cost-effective non-invasive liquid biopsy approach to improve prostate cancer diagnosis,' £97,242
• 2017-2022- Angle Europe PLC, "The prognostic value of circulating megakaryocytes for cancer patients" £278,000
• 2020-2022- Orchid, "The Robert Lane Tissue Bank incorporating the Circulating Tumour Cell project" £283,547.46. (Co-PI)
• 2008-2011- Medical Research Council, Associated genes in prostate cancer, £303,225
  
  

Recent Publications

Direct interaction of platelet with tumor cell aggravates hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis by activating TLR4/ADAM10/CX3cl1 axis Gao J-H, He A-D, Liu L-M et al. Cancer Letters (2024) 585(10) 216674

Observational and genetic associations between cardiorespiratory fitness and cancer: a UK Biobank and international consortia study Watts EL, Gonzales TI, Strain T et al. British Journal of Cancer (2024) 130(10) 114-124

Characterizing prostate cancer risk through multi-ancestry genome-wide discovery of 187 novel risk variants Wang A, Shen J, Rodriguez AA et al. Nature Genetics (2023) 55(10) 2065-2074

Protocol for a prospective study evaluating circulating tumour cells status to predict radical prostatectomy treatment failure in localised prostate cancer patients (C-ProMeta-1) Al-Hammouri T, Almeida-Magana R, Lawrence R et al. BMC Cancer 23(10) 581

Evaluating approaches for constructing polygenic risk scores for prostate cancer in men of African and European ancestry Darst BF, Shen J, Madduri RK et al. American Journal of Human Genetics (2023) 110(10) 1200-1206

Circulating tumour cells for early detection of clinically relevant cancer Lawrence R, Watters M, Davies CR et al. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology (2023) 20(10) 487-500

Genetically proxied glucose-lowering drug target perturbation and risk of cancer: a Mendelian randomisation analysis Yarmolinsky J, Bouras E, Constantinescu A et al. Diabetologia (2023) 66(10) 1481-1500

The potential of using circulating tumour cells and their gene expression to predict docetaxel response in metastatic prostate cancer Davies CR, Guo T, Burke E et al. Frontiers in Oncology 12(10) 1060864

Hsa_circ_0094606 promotes malignant progression of prostate cancer by inducing M2 polarization of macrophages through PRMT1-mediated arginine methylation of ILF3 Zhang Y, Wang K, Yang D et al. Carcinogenesis (2023) 44(10) 15-28

Discovery and validation of bladder cancer related excreted nucleosides biomarkers by dilution approach in cell culture supernatant and urine using UHPLC-MS/MS Chang Q, Chen P, Yin J et al. Journal of Proteomics (2023) 270(10) 104737

Team

Postdoctoral Researchers

• Rachel Lawrence

PhD Students

• Xueke Wang
• Junjie Chai
• Edwina Burke (part time)

Clinical Research Fellows

• Ricardo Almeida Magana

Research Technician

• Jasper Carmody
• Sarah McCarley

Biography

Education