Research Focus
Research on human tumor viruses has been central to development of modern cancer biology and given profound insights into cancers not only associated with infection but also cancer in general. Kaposi’s sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV), an oncogenic gamma-2 herpesvirus, is genetically equipped to manipulate and deregulate several cellular signaling pathways. Especially AIDS-associated Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) is strongly linked to immunosuppression and remains a significant health problem worldwide due to persisting HIV epidemic in Africa, and an increase in cases of recurrence even in the HAART-treated AIDS patients. KS is an angiogenic, histologically complex tumor, which consists of multifocal lesions of proliferating, latently KSHV-infected cells that are characterized by spindle-like morphology, and express markers of multiple cell types such as endothelial, smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts etc. KSHV is suggested to originate from endothelial cells (ECs) and it infects various types of ECs in culture; numerous studies describing consequences of KSHV infection of primary or immortalized vascular and lymphatic ECs support them as a valuable model to understand KSHV biology and pathogenesis.
For more information please visit my group's page at http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/departmentofmedicine/divisions/infectiousdiseases/viro/virushost/
Collaborators
Prof Niklas Feldhahn, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital, Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus pathobiology, 2017
Professor Mark Bower, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Kaposi's sarcoma, 2016
Guest Lectures
Invited talk, The Pirbright Institute, Surrey, UK, 2018
BioCity Symposium on Checkpoints & Quality Control, University of Turku, Finland, Biocity Turku, 2017
Invited talk, University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany, 2017
Invited talk, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, 2016
Invited talk, Finnish Cancer Institute, Jyväskylä, Finland, 2016
Viruses and human cancer, Keystone Symposium, Big Sky, Montana, USA, 2015
Advanced seminars in cancer biology, including infection-associated tumor, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, 2012
Cancer and Control of Genomic Integrity (CANGENIN), Imperial College London, London, UK, 2011
3nd Genome Instability Workshop, (IFOM-IEO) FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology Foundation (IFOM) and the Department of Experimental Oncology of the European Institute of Oncology (IEO), Milan, Italy, 2010
Advances in Infection and Cancer, The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany, 2010
EMBO Workshop: Lymphatic & Blood Vasculature - From Models to Human Disease, Biomedicum Helsinki, Univ of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, 2009
Invited talk, CRUK Institute for Cancer Studies , University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK, 2009
2nd Genome Instability Workshop, A joint Workshop of the GENICA FP7 Health Programme and the CANGENIN COST Network, Athens, Greece, 2009
Nobel Prize 2008 Meeting: Viruses and Cancer, Danish Biotechnological Society & Danish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2009