Tumour Microenvironment

Tumours develop and thrive in complex and dynamic microenvironments, made up of a variety of immune, epithelial and stromal cells, secreted factors and extracellular matrix proteins. Their interactions with the tumour cells influence their growth, invasiveness and metastatic potential. These cells play a role in how tumour cells respond to therapeutic intervention.

Our research covers the breadth of the tumour microenvironment (TME), from understanding the fundamentals of composition of the TME in multiple cancer types to how the TME can be targeted for more effective treatment. Taking a bench-to-bedside approach, we bring together basic scientists, clinical academics and informaticians with expertise in the TME including:

• complex model generation
• target validation
• drug development
• clinical translation

This allows us to uncover and model the complex TME in multiple cancer types. We can deliver real world impact, making a difference to the lives of patients with cancer.

We work together with Biological Sciences, Electronics and Computer Sciences and Engineering to generate pipelines for the identification, validation and clinical translation of new TME targeting strategies.

Partnering with University Hospital Southampton lets us embed patient needs at the heart of our research. We can also maximise available clinical samples for the effective generation and implementation of bench-to-bedside pipelines.

Additionally, our close links with biotech and pharma companies allow us to progress our findings into clinical trials for patient benefit.
 

Research themes

We investigate every aspect of the tumour microenvironment. When collaborating with us, you can explore themes like:
 

Human tissue analysis

• inter-disciplinary teams implementing state-of-the-art multi-omic analysis
• access to fresh tissue from unique patient cohorts
• investigating phenotypic changes in response to therapy and during malignant transformation
   

Multicellular model systems

• developing models to re-capitulate complex multicellular niches found in human tumours
• interpreting the molecular mechanisms and functional consequence of intercellular interactions in the TME
   

Clinical translation

• working with industry partners to expedite clinical impact
• target identification
• in-vitro validation
• pre-clinical testing
• trial sample analysis