Principal Lecturer in Biomedical Science

I joined the School of Life Sciences in 2010 as Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science. I studied chemistry and biochemistry at Imperial College, London (1990-1993) and then carried out a PhD in genetics at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London and the MRC Mouse Genome Centre, Harwell (1993-1997).

My PhD research, carried out in the laboratory of Professor Steve Brown, was focused on the genetic causes of hereditary deafness in murine models.

After completing my PhD in mammalian genetics at Imperial College (St Mary’s Hospital) and the Medical Research Council (Harwell) I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the field of cancer genetics for the University of Edinburgh and for Cancer Research UK. I then held the post of Lecturer in Oncology at Imperial College London for six years, before joining the University of Bedfordshire. I am also currently an Honorary Visiting Lecturer at Imperial College London.

Qualifications

• MSc Chemistry and Biology, Imperial College, London
• PhD in mammalian genetics, Imperial College, London

Teaching Expertise

I currently teach on all the undergraduate degree courses, and contribute guest lectures to several MSc courses in the School of Life Sciences.

I deliver teaching related to pathology and to the biology of disease, drawing on my experiences of working in various clinical research institutes.

I particularly enjoy teaching about disease mechanisms, helping students to understand how the various molecular an d cellular events in a particular disease create the symptoms of that disorder and explain why particular treatments are effective. In addition I supervise students in their BSc or MSc research projects that have an interest in genetics or cancer.

Research Interests

Given my background both as a geneticist and as a cancer researcher, I am interested in investigating how the genes that normally prevent cancers from occurring can go wrong and lead to the growth of tumours.

By understanding the biology of these genes and their function we can understand how different cancers behave, and how we might best treat cancer patients. I am particularly interested in understanding how some of these cancer genes affect the way our drugs work so that we might improve the treatments given to cancer patients.

Selected Publications

• Paige AJ; Zucknick M; Janczar S; Paul J; Mein CA; Taylor KJ; Stewart M; Gourley C; et al. (2010). WWOX tumour suppressor gene polymorphisms and ovarian cancer pathology and prognosis. Eur J Cancer. 46:818-825.
• Gourley C*; Paige AJ*; Taylor KJ; Ward C; Kuske B; Zhang J; Sun M; Janczar S; et al. (2009). WWOX gene expression abolishes ovarian cancer tumorigenicity in vivo and decreases attachment to fibronectin via integrin alpha3. Cancer Res. 69:4835-4842.
• Tan DSP; Lambros MBK; Rayter S; Natrajan R; Vatcheva R; Gao Q; Marchio C; Geyer FC; et al. (2009). PPM1D Is a Potential Therapeutic Target in Ovarian Clear Cell Carcinomas. Clin Cancer Res. 15:2269-2280.
• A. E. Alsop, K. Taylor, J. Zhang, H. Gabra, A. J.W. Paige, P. A.W. Edwards (2008) Homozygous Deletions May be Markers of Nearby Heterozygous Mutations: The Complex Deletion at FRA16D in the HCT116 Colon Cancer Cell Line Removes Exons of WWOX. Genes, Chromosomes and Cancer, 47 (5), p437.
• C. Gourley*, A. J. W. Paige*, K. J. Taylor, D. Scott, N-J. Francis, R. Rush, C. M. Aldaz, J.F. Smyth and H. Gabra (2005) Analysis of WWOX mRNA isoforms in ovarian cancer. International Journal of Oncology, 26 (6), p1681
• Paige AJ; Taylor KJ; Taylor C; Hillier SG; Farrington S; Scott D; Porteous DJ; Smyth JF; et al. (2001). WWOX: a candidate tumor suppressor gene involved in multiple tumor types. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 98:11417-11422
• Mburu P; Mustapha M; Varela A; Weil D; El-Amraoui A; Holme RH; Rump A; Hardisty RE; et al. (2003). Defects in whirlin, a PDZ domain molecule involved in stereocilia elongation, cause deafness in the whirler mouse and families with DFNB31. Nat Genet. 34:421-428.

Contact details

E: adam.paige@beds.ac.uk