Outline
I have recently completed my PhD thesis entitled "Nuclear Receptor Expression and Signalling in Normal and Neoplastic Human Urothelial Cells"
The urothelium is the tissue that lines the bladder, so hopefully my work will contribute to the understanding of bladder cancer. My work examined the expression of nuclear receptors in normal and cancerous bladder tissue to look for changes associated with cancer development. I also investigated how certain types of these receptors are able to inhibit cell growth as loss of growth controls often occur in cancers.
I conducted my research at the Jack Birch Unit for Molecular Carcinogeneis at the University of York - if you would like to know more about the JBU's research then try this link.
The JBU is supported by a local cancer charity York Against Cancer
Publications and Meeting Abstracts
Alexandre Demotie, Ian J. S. Fairlamb, Feng-Ju Lu, Nicola J. Shaw, Peter A. Spencer and Jennifer Southgate (2004). Synthesis of jaspaquinol and effect on viability of normal and malignant bladder epithelial cell lines. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 14(11); 2883-2887 PubMed
Spencer, P.A., Holder, J.C., Cairns, W.J. & Southgate, J. Induction of growth inhibition and apoptosis in urothelial cells by PPAR-gamma agonists in vitro. Poster presentation at 95th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, Orlando, Florida, March 2004.
Spencer, P.A., Holder, J.C. & Southgate, J. The effect of PPAR-gamma ligands on normal and neoplastic human urothelial cell growth. Oral presentation at Second International Symposium on PPARs: From Basic Science to Clinical Applications, Florence, Italy, March 2003.