Location: The Francis Crick Institute, Midland Road, London
Short summary
Despite huge advances in our understanding of the mechanisms involved in the subversion of cellular growth regulation in cancer, therapeutic agents targeting growth regulatory pathways have often proved disappointing in the clinic for the treatment of advanced cancers. Even agents that are initially highly effective, such as EGFR or BRAF inhibitors in lung cancer or melanoma bearing activating mutations in these oncogenes, have failed to provide long-term benefit due to the evolution of drug resistance. In order to move beyond treatments that only delay advanced cancers for a few months or, at best, years, we need to understand how to eradicate tumour cells completely, not leaving minor populations that go on to develop drug resistance and cause disease relapse. A very interesting area of investigation in this regard is that of immunotherapy.
Key Responsibilities
In this project, we plan to investigate the interplay between the immune system and the tumour, with particular emphasis on how best to combine targeted therapies that block oncogenic KRAS signaling pathways with immunotherapies. To allow study of the mechanism by which tumours overcome the immune system locally, we have developed improved mouse models of KRAS driven cancers that mimic the various immune microenvironments seen in lung cancer in the clinic. These include tumours that are infiltrated with effector immune cells such as T and B cells – a “hot” tumour immune microenvironment – which are responsive to immune checkpoint blockade (Boumelha et al. 2022 Cancer Research in press. 10.1101/2020.12.22.423126), tumours that are refractory to immunotherapy because they lack any recognition by the immune system (“cold” (Boumelha et al. 2022) or immunotherapy refractory tumours that actively exclude immune effector cells that recognise them (“immune excluded”
About us
The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical discovery institute dedicated to understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Its work is helping to understand why disease develops and to translate discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases.
An independent organisation, its founding partners are the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL (University College London), Imperial College London and King’s College London.
The Crick was formed in 2015, and in 2016 it moved into a new state-of-the-art building in central London which brings together 1500 scientists and support staff working collaboratively across disciplines, making it the biggest biomedical research facility under in one building in Europe.
The Francis Crick Institute will be world-class with a strong national role. Its distinctive vision for excellence includes commitments to collaboration; developing emerging talent and exporting it the rest of the UK; public engagement; and helping turn discoveries into treatments as quickly as possible to improve lives and strengthen the economy.
- If you are interested in applying for this role, please apply via our website.
- The closing date for applications is 5th August 2022
- All offers of employment are subject to successful security screening and continuous eligibility to work in the United Kingdom.