Health and environment

We have a grant at the moment from a charity called Sparks to understand how red blood cells develop, how the beta globin gene changes over time with the view to potential therapeutic opportunities. The reason for it is that haemoglobin has different forms. So when you are a foetus you have a different form of haemoglobin called foetal haemoglobin, which facilitates the transfer of oxygen from mother to foetus, and when you are born you switch mainly onto adult haemoglobin. The sickle cell gene is a mutation of adult haemoglobin. So children who have sickle cell disease develop perfectly fine as embryos, but after birth they develop the disease. People who have higher foetal haemoglobin levels and also have sickle cell tend to have milder symptoms. We are studying the process of the foetal gene being switched off and the adult gene being switched on, so that we can find new therapeutic approaches for people who have sickle cell disease.

We’re also looking at ovarian cancer, which usually presents quite late. Most women who present with ovarian cancer are already in the second stage, and by then the survival rate is a lot lower. One of the reasons for this is that quite often in the later stages ovarian cancer becomes drug resistant. So we are trying to understand the molecular mechanisms by which these tumour cells become resistant, and why it is that some cells you can kill but they come back and are then resistant to drugs. Part of the funding came from a charity called the Cancer and Polio Research Fund.

We’ve got quite a few collaborations at Oxford Brookes going on at the moment, a couple in particular that are going well. One is with Dr Casper Breuker, who is interested in the evolutionary development of butterflies. He is looking at the expression of genes and its changes, and we’ve been looking at the molecular biology side. The other one is with Professor Munera Kadhim who researches the effects of radiation. We’re looking at how gene expression changes in what’s called the bystander or abscopal effect, where cells that neighbour an area of the body that has received radiotherapy start to behave differently themselves. We look at what changes of gene expression are going on and what is mediating that effect.

In my group I’m trying to develop students to become scientists and independent thinkers. I expect all my students to get at least three publications; they get to learn new techniques, get involved in planning and running their own projects, and go to conferences.

Research students have access to a good deal of equipment. We have lots of facilities that in some cases are as good as any in the world. So we’ve got an excellent bio-imaging facility, a range of microscopes, and a real-time PCR machine for analysing the levels of gene expression. All the collective equipment of all the labs is open to all, and that means that students can benefit from not only using the equipment, but also interacting with other groups in using them - there’s a real sense of community.

Being in Oxford is excellent as well because there is so much expertise and so much going on, it’s such a vibrant research city, it’s one of the best research cities in the world.

bdel-Hadi, A., Caley, D., Carter, D., Magan, N. 2011. Control of Aflatoxin Production of Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus Using RNA Silencing Technology by Targeting aflD (nor-1) Gene, Toxins;3(6) DOI:10.3390/toxins3060647 Pink, RC., Bailey, TA., Iputo, JE., Sammon, AM., Woodman, AC., Carter, DR. 2011. Molecular Basis for Maize as a Risk Factor for Esophageal Cancer in a South African Population via a Prostaglandin E2 Positive Feedback Mechanism, Nutrition and Cancer;63(5) DOI:10.1080/01635581.2011.570893 Pink, R. C., Wicks, K., Caley, D. P., Punch, E. K., Jacobs, L. & Carter, D. R. F. 2011. Pseudogenes: Pseudo-functional or key regulators in health and disease? Rna-a Publication of the Rna Society, 17, 792-798. Pink, R. C., Eskiw, C. H., Caley, D. P. & Carter, D. R. F. 2010. Analysis of beta-globin Chromatin Micro-Environment Using a Novel 3C Variant, 4Cv. PLoS One, 5, Article No.: e13045. Caley DP, Pink RC, Trujillano D and DRF Carter. Long noncoding RNAs, chromatin and development. ScientificWorldJournal. 2010. 10:90-102. Shreve DP and DRF Carter. Non-coding RNAs: Bridging Biology and therapy. J RNAi Gene Silencing. 2009. 5(1):351-3. DRF Carter, Eskiw C, Cook PR. Transcription Factories. Biochem Soc Trans. 2008. 36(4):585-9. Eskiw CH, Rapp A, Carter DR, Cook, PR. RNA polymerase II activity is located on the surface of ~87 nm protein-rich factories. J Cell Sci. 2008. 121(12):1999-2007. M Aleckovic and D Carter. RNAi at Oxford. J RNAi Gene Silenc. 2008. 4(1):266-268. Bartlett J, Blagojevic J, Carter D, Eskiw C, Fromaget M, Job C, Shamsher M, Trindade IF, Xu M, Cook PR. Specialized transcription factories. Biochem Soc Symp. 2006;(73):67-75. Chakalova L, Carter D, Debrand E, Goyenechea B, Horton A, Miles J, Osborne C, Fraser P. Developmental regulation of the beta-globin gene locus. Prog Mol Subcell Biol. 2005;38:183-206. Review. Osborne CS, Chakalova L, Brown KE, Carter D, Horton A, Debrand E, Goyenechea B, Mitchell JA, Lopes S, Reik W, Fraser P. Active genes dynamically colocalize to shared sites of ongoing transcription. Nat Genet. 2004 Oct;36(10):1065-71. Chakalova L, Carter D, Fraser P. RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization tagging and recovery of associated proteins to analyze in vivo chromatin interactions. Methods Enzymol. 2004;375:479-93. Carter D, Chakalova L, Osborne CS, Dai YF, Fraser P. Long-range chromatin regulatory interactions in vivo. Nat Genet. 2002 Dec;32(4):623-6.