Research

I am interested in understanding how cell signalling pathways driven by the activity of protein kinases contribute to the development of cancer. Signalling pathways do not work in isolation but form a complex network of biochemical reactions that integrate extracellular signals into a coordinated cell biological response.

Essentially all cancers deregulate one or several components of this biochemical network, but unfortunately, cancers are heterogeneous in the way signalling is perturbed. In practice, this means that novel targeted therapies against signalling nodes do not work equally well in all patients. Even those patients that initially respond eventually develop resistance.

To understand the mechanisms underlying this heterogeneity, I developed methodology based on a technique named mass spectrometry and on computational science. These techniques can be used to measure how the signalling network is wired in individual cancer populations in a comprehensive and unbiased manner.

My group is now using these unique resources to investigate the fundamental properties of signalling networks and to understand how signalling heterogeneity in cancer (with particular focus on haematological malignancies) contribute to intrinsic and acquired resistance to compounds that target signalling enzymes.

Other Activities

• Turing Fellow (2018-)
• Founding Director, Activiomics Ltd (2011-2014)
• Member of the Steering Committee of The London Biological Mass Spectrometry Discussion Group (LBMSDG)

Major Funding

• 2018-2022- MRC Medical Research Council, Translational Biology iCASE Programme - Grant, £202,131.99
• 2017-2021- CRUK, £350,000
• 2017-2019- Barts Charity, Proteomics mass spectrometry for the Barts Post-Genomic Phenotype Unit, £371,000
• 2015-2018- B.B.S.R.C., Systematic classificiation of phosphorylation sites for an integrative analysis of kinase signalling, £374,677
• 2015-2017- Barts Charity, Personalizing cancer treatments, £475,828
  
  

Recent Publications

Cancer Burden Is Controlled by Mural Cell-β3-Integrin Regulated Crosstalk with Tumor Cells Wong PP, Muñoz-Félix JM, Hijazi M et al. Cell (2020) 181(7) 1346-1363.e21

Prediction of Signed Protein Kinase Regulatory Circuits Invergo BM, Petursson B, Akhtar N et al. Cell Systems (2020) 10(13) 384-396.e9

Cancer associated fibroblast FAK regulates malignant cell metabolism. Demircioglu F, Wang J, Candido J et al. Nature Communications (2020) 11(1) 1290-1290
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32157087

Liver Activation of Hepatocellular Nuclear Factor-4α by Small Activating RNA Rescues Dyslipidemia and Improves Metabolic Profile Huang KW, Reebye V, Czysz K et al. Molecular Therapy - Nucleic Acids (2020) 19(7) 361-370

Reconstructing kinase network topologies from phosphoproteomics data reveals cancer-associated rewiring Hijazi M, Smith R, Rajeeve V et al. Nature Biotechnology (2020) (1)

A systematic molecular and pharmacologic evaluation of AKT inhibitors reveals new insight into their biological activity Kostaras E, Kaserer T, Lazaro G et al. British Journal of Cancer (2020) (7)

Chemical phosphoproteomics systematically identifies circuitries of kinase networks in cancer cells and predicts their response to kinase inhibitors Cutillas PR, Hijazi M, Smith R et al. MOLECULAR CANCER THERAPEUTICS (2019) 18(11)
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000510047200329&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=612ae0d773dcbdba3046f6df545e9f6a

Poly(ADP-Ribose) Polymerase-1 inhibition potentiates cell death and phosphorylation of DNA damage response proteins in oxidative stressed retinal cells. Martín-Guerrero SM, Casado P, Muñoz-Gámez JA et al. Exp Eye Res (2019) 188(2) 107790
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31494107

Integrin alpha V beta 6-EGFR crosstalk regulates bidirectional force transmission and controls breast cancer invasion Thomas JR, Moore KM, Sproat C et al. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PATHOLOGY (2019) 100(11) A39-A39
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000498417900076&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=612ae0d773dcbdba3046f6df545e9f6a

Perineural invasion in pancreatic cancer: proteomic analysis and in vitro modelling. Alrawashdeh W, Jones R, Dumartin L et al. Mol Oncol (2019) 13(2) 1075-1091
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30690892

Team

Postdoctoral Researchers

Biography

I graduated with a PhD in 2004 from UCL. My studies (completed in the laboratories of Prof Mike Waterfield, Prof Rainer Cramer and Prof Al Burlingame) were on a project that investigated kidney physiology and were supervised by Prof Robert Unwin. I then completed postdoctoral training at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (UCL branch).

In 2007, I became lecturer at the Centre for Cell Signalling and in 2010 I was promoted to Senior Lecturer. After a period in the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre (2012-2013), where I was Head of the Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics, I joined the Centre for Haemoto-Oncology in 2013 where I now lead the Integrative Cell Signalling and Proteomics Group.