Dr Almut Schulze
Gene Expression Analysis Laboratory
Cancer Research UK London Research Institute
London
Studying the signals at the heart of cancer
Dr Almut Schulze leads the Gene Expression Analysis lab at our London Research Institute. Her team is investigating how signalling inside cancer cells can change the way they behave. By unravelling the inner workings of cancer, her work is giving clues for new ways to tackle the disease.
Cancer cells are very different from healthy cells – they can grow faster, move from one part of the body to another, and survive conditions that would kill other cells. This is because they’ve changed the way they behave, and part of this is down to the complicated signalling networks that allow one part of the cell to communicate with another.
Dr Schulze and her team are studying these signalling networks to find out why they go wrong in cancer cells. For example, tumours often grow quickly and cancer cells need a good supply of extra ‘building blocks’ such as lipids. Signals inside the cells can switch on processes that boost lipid production, speeding up cell growth.
Dr Schulze is studying these signals, as well as finding out how certain enzymes help cancer cells to survive. Her work is helping us to understand the faults at the heart of cancer, a vital step towards beating the disease.
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