Personalising mesothelioma treatment

Precision therapeutics for mesothelioma

Research theme lead: Professor Dean Fennell FMedSci

Mesothelioma is an incurable cancer caused by asbestos, an environmental contaminant, that can arise in the chest or the abdomen. Effective treatments and strategies for personalising therapy have been lacking. Our mesothelioma research programme is addressing this gap through the application of genomics and preclinical pharmacology to identify novel drug targets/biomarkers to underpin our clinical trials, with the key goal of improving clinical outcomes and changing practice. 

Mesothelioma Research:

Fennell Lab
Post doctoral Scientists 

• Dr Jens Hahne (NIHR research manager)
• Dr Joanna Dzialo
• Dr Charlotte Poile
• Dr Aleksandra Bzura
• Dr Nada Nusrat

Clinical Research Fellows

• Dr Maurice Dungey - NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer 
• Mr Kudazyi Kutywayo

PhD students

• Jake Spicer (targeting DNA damage repair pathways)
• Jan Rogel (oncogenic drivers)
• Daniel Faulkner HSP90 immune landscape)
• Yue Lin (targeting BAP1 mutant or wild type mesothelioma)

Co-investigators

• Professor Hongji Yang (bioinformatics, computing)
• Professor Hiuyu Zhou (machine learning)
• Professor Edward Hollox (Genetics)
• Professor Frank Dudbridge (Statistical Genetics)
• Professor Catrin Pritchard (Explant pharmacology)

Clinical Team

• Dr Sean Dulloo - Consultant Medical Oncologist 
• Dr Meera Chauhan - Consultant Medical Oncologist
• Dr Thiagarajan Sridhar - Consultant Clinical Oncologist
• Mr Apostolos Nakas - Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon
• Professor Jon Bennett - Consultant Respiratory Physician
• Dr Rajini Sudhir - Consultant Respiratory Physician
• Dr Rakesh Panchal - Consultant Respiratory Physician
• Dr Amrita Bajaj - Consultant Radiologist, Honorary Lecturer
• Professor Bruno Morgan - Consultant Radiologist
• Dr Cathy Richards - Consultant Pathologist

Nursing Team

• Liz Darlison MBE - Nurse Consultant 
• Louise Nelson - Clinical Nurse Specialist
• Laura Smith - Clinical Nurse Specialist

Clinical Trials Team

• Molly Scotland - Research Nurse
• Azmina Soda-Ramdeen - Research Nurse
• Manjumol Abraham - Pleural Research Nurse
• Anmol Guraya - Data Manager
• Fatemeh Behnaz - Data Manage

Recent Selective Publications

• Zhang M. et al. Nat Commun (2024, in press)
• Szlosarek, P et al. JAMA Oncol. 2024 Feb 15:e236789
• Singh, A. et al. Oncogene 42, 572-585 (2023)
• Fennell, D.A. & Bzura, A. Nat Cancer 3, 902-904 (2022)
• Fennell, D.A., Dulloo, S. & Harber, J. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 19, 573-584 (2022)
• Zauderer, M.G. et al. Lancet Oncol 23, 758-767 (2022)
• Fennell, D.A. et al. Lancet Oncol 23 374-381 (2022)
• Fennell, D.A. et al. Lancet Oncol 22, 1530-1540 (2021)
• Janes S. M., Alrifai, D. & Fennell, D.A. N Engl J Med 385 1207-1218 (2021)
• Zhang, M. et al. Nat Commun 12, 1751 (2021)