Assoc. Prof. Laure Marignol

Research Description:

My lab focuses on growing solutions for the optimal destruction of cancer cells. My contributions expand across three branches:

Branch 1 focuses on the barriers to cancer cell destruction. My lab has extensively examined the impact of tumour hypoxia. Our work related the presence of hypoxia expression markers to raised prostate specific antigen in prostate cancer patients (Marignol et al. Cancer Biology and Therapy, 2009) and documented the chemo- and radio-sensitivity of these cells under these low oxygenation conditions (Forde et al, Urologic Oncology 2012, 2013). Striving to further elucidate the molecular response driving treatment resistance, the lab created a unique isogenic model of radioresistant prostate cancer through repeated exposure to fractionated radiation doses (McDermott et al. Nature Scientific Reports, 2016).

Branch 2 focuses on predicting cancer cell destruction. My lab has cross-examined the molecular response to hypoxia and ionising radiation to identify key drivers of treatment resistance in prostate cancer cell lines. This work identified miR-4284, its predicted target YB-1 and associated receptor Notch-3 as a candidate signalling pathway to cancer cell destruction prediction (McDermott et al. Clinical and Translational Radiation Oncology 2017). This model supported further biomarker discovery and attracted partners from nanomaterials science for the development of prognostic tests (SFI TIDA grant 2017). In prostate cancer patient biopsies, we linked the presence of these markers with poor response to radiation therapy (Inder et al. Nature Scientific Report 2019).

Branch 3 focuses on innovation in cancer cell destruction. Earlier work produced gene therapy vectors (Marignol et al. Journal of Gene Medicine 2009) and ongoing work examines gene silencing strategies for the therapeutic manipulation of the molecular response to hypoxia and ionising radiation.