University of St Andrews

Cellular Medicine Research Division

CMED 5 Research 5 Cancer research

Cancer research

Our research generates data from patient samples, such as urine, blood and tissue to better understand who may develop invasive disease, who may forgo invasive treatment and who may respond best to specific therapy; in other words early intervention and personalised medicine (Harrison).  The Villar Cortes group particularly focus on the identification of non-conventional metabolites in plasma samples that can be exploited for biomarker discovery in cancer.

The research does not just focus on the cancer and its molecular make up, but also our immunological response (Powis). We develop innovate methodology in digital and molecular pathology, computer vision, and immunology (Harrison, Reynolds, Powis). Our work also identifies novel resistance mechanisms, modes of actions and synergistic combinations of novel drugs being developed for the clinic. Finally, we apply mathematical modelling and machine learning to the large and complex data sets generated to optimise our understanding of disease and to identify novel drug targets (Lynch).

We work with multiple collaborators within the NHS, academia and industry to not only ensure our research is pioneering, but also has strong translatable impact into the clinic.

Principal Investigators

agl4

Prof Andrew Lynch

Professor of Statistics in Bioscience
Professor
Professor

djh20

Prof David Harrison

Professor

sjp10

Dr Simon Powis

Reader

par10

Dr Paul Reynolds

Lecturer

vhvc1

Dr Victor Villar Cortes