Sarah Robbins is studying how certain brain cancer cells enter and re-emerge from a dormant state. This ability allows them to hide from treatments and come back even more aggressively later on.
To explore this, she has created a special lab system that can switch these cells between active and dormant states. This tool helps her investigate what causes the cells to change and how we might stop them from coming back.
Shahana Shaji is working on ways to make radiotherapy more effective for treating meningioma, a type of brain tumour. She’s testing a drug called LAQ824, which may help boost the impact of radiation on these tumours.
Using advanced protein analysis techniques, she has identified specific biological pathways that are affected when the drug and radiation are used together. This could lead to more targeted and powerful treatments in the future.
Olivia Wakefield is studying a type of spinal tumour called ependymoma. She’s focusing on how certain genetic changes—specifically in a gene called NF2—and problems in a cell communication system known as Hippo signalling may play a role in the development of these tumours.
As part of her PhD, Olivia has created a new mouse model by switching off specific genes to better understand how these tumours grow. She’s also been testing how treatments like high-pressure oxygen and radiation affect a type of ependymoma found in the lower part of the brain, known as posterior fossa ependymoma.
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