Bart's Mesothelioma Research

Laboratory Research Programme - Introduction
The Bart's laboratory programme is aiming to understand the biology of malignant mesothelioma.
The main interests of our laboratory group are:

• The study of apoptotic mechanisms and sites of drug resistance in malignant mesothelioma.

Apoptosis, or "programmed cell death", is the regulatory process by which damaged cells are destroyed. There are at least two known apopotic pathways - the "intrinsic" and the "extrinsic", both of which involve the activation of a family of proteins called caspases. Under normal cell activity, activation of caspases leads to apoptosis. In tumours, disruptions in these pathways cause resistance to apoptosis and ensure cell survival and development.
With the use of tissue and molecular biology techniques, we are trying to identify dysfunctional proteins in the mesothelioma apoptotic pathway and sites of drug resistance.
The protein identified might be novel targets for effective treatment.

The genetics of malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma cell-line studies and state of the art genomic array technology is used to identify alterations in the mesothelioma genome and provide information for target therapy.