Dr Clare Lawrence

Clare’s research interests centre around three main areas : The use of aptamers to diagnose and target disease. Aptamers are short oligonucleotides, either RNA or DNA, which have been successfully used to specifically target a range of different cell types. The nucleotide sequence of the aptamer causes it to fold into a specific three-dimensional shape, which allows it to bind to target molecules. As such, aptamers are similar to antibodies, but possess a number of key advantages including size, stability, reduce immunogenicity and simple conjugation chemistry. Therefore, aptamers offer several properties which enable them to be a useful tool for diagnostic and treatment purposes. Clare has several projects in this area

• Use of aptamers in both the diagnosis and management of mastitis and the detection of antibiotics residues following treatment (in collaboration with Myerscough College)

• Identification and validation of novel aptamers against fungal cells for the targeting of antifungal agents

• Development of novel aptamers for tumour targeting and therapy (with Dr Jane Alder and Dr Lisa Shaw)

Investigating the regulation of tumour associated lipogenesis using the model organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is important for cells to respond to external signals, central to these responses are the sensing and signalling pathways that communicate with the nucleus and facilitate necessary changes in gene expression. Of importance is the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK), which has been shown to be involved in cell growth, proliferation, and survival. This pathway is also under intensive investigation in connection with cancer and recent evidence from this lab has suggested its role in mediating lipogenesis. Lipogenesis and formation of lipid droplets accompanies a variety of disease states, including the formation of cancer. The ability to limit tumour growth and reduce invasion through a better understanding of tumour associated lipid formation may offer targets for the development of new therapies. Using yeast as an in vitro screening tool to identify novel compounds which have potential therapeutic applications. Yeast can be used to evaluate the efficacy of potential compounds for therapeutic use and decipher the functional components of the pathways that regulate the cellular response to these compounds and identify future targets.