Dr Marie Boyd - University of Strathclyde

Marie’s lab is researching the more effective use of radiation in cancer treatment, and is trying to find ways of increasing the dose of radiation administered to cancer cells while reducing the dose to normal vulnerable tissues and organs. Targeted radionuclide-therapy is the selective irradiation of tumours by radionuclides conjugated to tumour-seeking molecules. This promising form of radiotherapy exploits metabolic characteristics of malignant cells enabling the deposition of radiation decay energy in tumour cells while sparing normal tissue. Marie’s aims are: to rigorously assess novel modes of gene manipulation and radiosensitisation to enhance radionuclide targeting of cancer; to broaden the range of tumours amenable to targeted radionuclide therapy via transfer of genes encoding radiopharmaceutical transporters and by identifying new targets and targeting agents which are specific to tumour cells; and to optimise the tumour specificity of radiation-mediated bystander cytotoxicity. Therapeutic strategies which provide evidence of efficacy in experimental models will be evaluated clinically and we already have a track record in translation of our novel schemes worldwide for therapy and imaging of cancer.