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I recently completed my PhD studying novel and repurposed therapeutics for the treatment of paediatric high grade glioma.  My project involved characterising the mechanism of action of Clomipramine, a repurposed therapeutic, including a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screen to determine essential survival genes and identify combinatorial approaches to develop novel therapeutic strategies for paediatric high grade glioma. After completing my PhD, I undertook a short post-doc position in the Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, studying novel platinum pro-drug formulations for pHGG and DIPG therapies. I am currently working in Alex Bullock’s lab in the SGC, University of Oxford where I am studying ALK kinase inhibition as a therapeutic target for DIPG. Previously, I have worked as team leader in the primary pharmacology group (Pfizer, UK) and more recently in the target discovery institute (TDI) high throughput screening group (University of Oxford).

Existing collaborations relevant to drug delivery

M4K Pharma. ALK kinase inhibition as a therapeutic strategy for DIPG.  

Dr Nicola Farrer, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford. Platinum pro-drugs as a therapeutic strategy for diffuse paediatric gliomas.

Daniel Ebner, Dr Dylan Jones and Dr Georgina Berridge at the Target Discovery Institute (TDI), University of Oxford for CRISPR-Cas9 screening, mass spectrometry and bioinformatics.

Professor Geoff Higgins and James Coates at CRUK/MRC Oxford Institute for Radiation Oncology for metabolic studies.

Dr Ruman Rahman and Dr Anbarasu Lourdusamy, Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre (CBTRC), Nottingham, for bioinformatics and tissue microarray screening. 

Publications relevant to drug delivery

Kezi Yao, Arnau Bertran, Alison Howarth, Jose M. Goicoechea, Samuel. M. Hare, Nick H Rees, Mohammadali Foroozandeh, Alice Bowen, Nicola J. Farrer. A visible-light photoactivatable di-nuclear PtIV triazolato azido complex. Chemistry Communications, Epub ahead of print, 2019.

Howarth A, Pilkington G, Hill R. Modulation of Autophagy as a Therapeutic Approach for the Treatment of Paediatric High Grade Glioma. Brain Pathology, 2019.

Karina Mihajluk Claire Simms, Marcus Reay, Patricia. A. Madureira, Alison Howarth, Patrick Murray, Soheyla Nasser, Mark D. Pritchard, Carrie A. Duckworth, Keittisak Suwan, Amin Hajitou, Geoffrey J. Pilkington, Richard Hill. IP1867B suppresses the Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 Receptor (IGF1R), ablating Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor inhibitor resistance in adult high grade gliomas. Cancer Letters, 23; 458:29-38 (2019)