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About

Research in the Heath laboratory is influenced by the recognition that many of the dynamic processes that occur during development are also highly active or dysregulated in cancer, such as cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, angiogenesis, and apoptosis. By participating in a forward genetic screen in zebrafish, Heath lab members identified a collection of genes that are critical for the rapid expansion of the digestive organs (liver, pancreas and intestine) during zebrafish larval development.

We are now investigating whether the decreased expression of these genes, and the cellular processes they are involved in, can arrest the growth of lung, liver, stomach and colon cancer. Our current studies are focused on identifying small molecule inhibitors of these processes for the purpose of cancer therapy.

Publications

Selected publications from Prof Joan Heath

Olthof AM, Schwoerer CF, Girardini KN, Weber AL, Doggett K, Mieruszynski S, Heath JK, Moore TE, Biran J, Kanadia RN. Taxonomy of introns and the evolution of minor introns. Nucleic Acids Research. 2024;52(15):10.1093/nar/gkae550

Morgan KJ, Doggett K, Geng F, Mieruszynski S, Whitehead L, Smith KA, Hogan BM, Simons C, Baillie GJ, Molania R, Papenfuss AT, Hall TE, Ober EA, Stainier DY, Gong Z, Heath JK. ahctf1 and kras mutations combine to amplify oncogenic stress and restrict liver overgrowth in a zebrafish model of hepatocellular carcinoma. eLife. 2023;12:10.7554/elife.73407

Lobert VH, Skardal ML, Malerød L, Simensen JE, Algra HA, Andersen AN, Fleischer T, Enserink HA, Liestøl K, Heath JK, Rusten TE, Stenmark HA. PHLPP1 regulates CFTR activity and lumen expansion through AMPK. Development. 2022;149(20):10.1242/dev.200955

Heath J, Cory S, Steitz J. Joan Heath interviews Suzanne Cory and Joan Steitz: a female perspective of science in the swinging ‘60s. Disease Models & Mechanisms. 2022;15(5):10.1242/dmm.049609

Grohmann C, Magtoto CM, Walker JR, Chua NK, Gabrielyan A, Hall M, Cobbold SA, Mieruszynski S, Brzozowski M, Simpson DS, Dong H, Dorizzi B, Jacobsen AV, Morrish E, Silke N, Murphy JM, Heath JK, Testa A, Maniaci C, Ciulli A, Lessene G, Silke J, Feltham R. Development of NanoLuc-targeting protein degraders and a universal reporter system to benchmark tag-targeted degradation platforms. Nature Communications. 2022;13(1):10.1038/s41467-022-29670-1

Koltowska K, Okuda KS, Gloger M, Rondon-Galeano M, Mason E, Xuan J, Dudczig S, Chen H, Arnold H, Skoczylas R, Bower NI, Paterson S, Lagendijk AK, Baillie GJ, Leshchiner I, Simons C, Smith KA, Goessling W, Heath JK, Pearson RB, Sanij E, Schulte-Merker S, Hogan BM. The RNA helicase Ddx21 controls Vegfc-driven developmental lymphangiogenesis by balancing endothelial cell ribosome biogenesis and p53 function. Nature Cell Biology. 2021;23(11):10.1038/s41556-021-00784-w

Olthof AM, White AK, Mieruszynski S, Doggett K, Lee MF, Chakroun A, Aleem AKA, Rousseau J, Magnani C, Roifman CM, Campeau PM, Heath JK, Kanadia RN. Disruption of exon-bridging interactions between the minor and major spliceosomes results in alternative splicing around minor introns. Nucleic Acids Research. 2021;49(6):10.1093/nar/gkab118

Doggett K, Williams BB, Markmiller S, Geng F-S, Coates J, Mieruszynski S, Ernst M, Thomas T, Heath JK. Early developmental arrest and impaired gastrointestinal homeostasis in U12-dependent splicing-defective Rnpc3-deficient mice. RNA. 2018;24(12):10.1261/rna.068221.118

Baell JB, Leaver DJ, Hermans SJ, Kelly GL, Brennan MS, Downer NL, Nguyen N, Wichmann J, McRae HM, Yang Y, Cleary B, Lagiakos HR, Mieruszynski S, Pacini G, Vanyai HK, Bergamasco MI, May RE, Davey BK, Morgan KJ, Sealey AJ, Wang B, Zamudio N, Wilcox S, Garnham AL, Sheikh BN, Aubrey BJ, Doggett K, Chung MC, de Silva M, Bentley J, Pilling P, Hattarki M, Dolezal O, Dennis ML, Falk H, Ren B, Charman SA, White KL, Rautela J, Newbold A, Hawkins ED, Johnstone RW, Huntington ND, Peat TS, Heath JK, Strasser A, Parker MW, Smyth GK, Street IP, Monahan BJ, Voss AK, Thomas T. Inhibitors of histone acetyltransferases KAT6A/B induce senescence and arrest tumour growth. Nature. 2018;560(7717):10.1038/s41586-018-0387-5

Kim EJY, Anko M-L, Flensberg C, Majewski IJ, Geng F-S, Firas J, Huang DCS, van Delft MF, Heath JK. BAK/BAX-Mediated Apoptosis Is a Myc-Induced Roadblock to Reprogramming. Stem Cell Reports. 2018;10(2):10.1016/j.stemcr.2017.12.019

Lab research projects

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