Director's profile
Andrew Gilmore
My interest in biology initially led me to study Zoology as an undergraduate. However, I quickly became more interested in how animals worked at a smaller and smaller level, down to the individual molecules that make up a living cell. What interests me is most understanding how molecules within cells interact, and during my PhD studies I realised that biochemistry could give insights into these questions. Over the years I have, therefore, transformed from a zoologist into a cell biologist and biochemist.
Collections of cells combine to form tissues and organs, but to understand how this occurs, you really have to consider the biochemical reactions within each cell. Viewing life as a chemical reaction makes sense to me, as a cell is essentially a bag of chemical reactions, albeit an extremely complex mixture of many thousands of different types. It is, therefore, fascinating how a cell actually organises these reactions in an ordered way.
... I quickly became more interested in how animals worked at a smaller and smaller level, down to the individual molecules that make up a living cell.
My research interests have always centered on the interactions between cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM). The ECM is the material that cells stick to and which gives tissues structure and shape. Some examples of would include structures such as bone and tendons. Cells have their own internal skeleton that helps them to attach to the ECM. One role of this process is to tell each cell that it is in the correct place within the body. Importantly, if cells are not in their correct place, they initiate a complex set of biochemical processes that drive their own death and removal. This process, called apoptosis (or programmed cell death) goes wrong in a number of diseases, including cancer and Alzheimer’s.
One aspect of apoptosis is that every cell contains all the enzymes required to kill itself within a matter of minutes. However, these reactions do not occur until the cell receives the appropriate signals. This provides a fascinating example of how biochemical reactions are switched on or off within a cell in response to its environment. Work in my lab is interested in both how this process occurs normally, and what happens to make it go wrong in disease. We are particularly interested in the role of apoptosis in breast cancer, where in both early and advanced stages of the disease, cancer cells that should undergo apoptosis, do not. Furthermore, many therapies used to treat cancer are aimed and activating the apoptotic mechanisms in the tumor cells. Cancers that become resistant to therapeutics are unable to activate these normal apoptotic processes. Thus, understanding the biochemistry of an enzymatic reaction should help us understand how tumor cells become resistant to treatment.