Prof Fiona Watt

Professor Fiona Watt

Epithelial Cell Biology
Cambridge Research Institute
Cambridge

Getting under the skin

Professor Fiona Watt, the Deputy Director of our Cambridge Research Institute, is studying normal skin cells in order to understand what goes wrong in skin cancer. In particular, she is carrying out pioneering research into skin stem cells. These long-lived cells can multiply to produce many different types of skin cell and are believed to play a central role in the development of skin cancer.

Skin stem cells

Our skin has a highly complex structure consisting of several layers of cells. Stem cells, found in the bottom layers, multiply to produce more cells that then move up to the surface. As they do so, these cells change to become mature skin cells or 'keratinocytes' that make up structures such as hair follicles and sweat glands.

The balance of cells in the skin is normally tightly controlled. But when too many cells are produced and this careful organisation is disrupted, it can lead to cancer. Professor Watt is investigating exactly what goes wrong in skin cancer by studying the molecular cues that control decision-making in skin cells.

Understanding skin cancer

She has already found new 'markers' that can be used to identify skin stem cells and shown that proteins called Rac1 and c-Myc play key roles in determining how many stem cells are present within the skin.

Her team are now using a variety of techniques to uncover further molecules that dictate when and how stem cells multiply and change into other cell types. This work is helping scientists to understand how the sophisticated patterning of the skin is maintained and is providing important insights into what goes wrong in skin cancer.

Professor Watt has an international reputation in the field of stem cell research and in 2003, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Listen to an audio package featuring Professor Watt talking about cancer stem cells:

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