Prof Julian Downward

Signal Transduction Laboratory
London Research Institute
London

Understanding how communication goes wrong in cancer cells

Professor Julian Downward leads the Signal Transduction Laboratory at our London Research Institute. He is studying genes and proteins within cancer cells to find out how communication pathways break down in cancer. This work is improving our understanding of what goes wrong in cancer and revealing new ways to treat the disease.

Professor Downward and his team are studying important oncogenes to find out how they promote cancer growth. Much of their work focuses on the Ras family, a group of 3 related oncogenes that are faulty in nearly a third of all human cancers.

His group have already shown that Ras proteins 'talk' to other key proteins such as Raf and PI3-kinase and that this is important early on in cancer development as it helps cancer cells to survive in the body. They are now aiming to find even more faulty proteins and pathways in cancer cells using a powerful new technique called RNAi screening.

Professor Downward and his team were one of the first groups in the world to develop and use RNAi screening technology. This high-tech approach allows researchers to study thousands of genes simultaneously and thereby identify important proteins more easily than ever before. The team have already successfully used RNAi screens to identify proteins that encourage cancer cells to spread and others that are linked to drug resistance.

This work will significantly improve our understanding of what goes wrong inside cancer cells. Importantly, it will highlight potential targets for drugs that may be developed as new cancer treatments for the future.