Professor Fran Balkwill

Profile

I am Professor of Cancer Biology at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, where I lead the Centre for Cancer and Inflammation and the Cytokine and Cancer group within that Centre. I study the links between cancer and inflammation and research ways of translating this to clinical trial.

In 2006, I was made a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, being elected a member of its Council later in the same year. I am a frequent plenary and keynote speaker at international meetings, such as Gordon and Keystone conferences and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

I am also actively involved in communication of science to non-specialist audiences, especially young people. I have written thirteen science books for children on cell and molecular biology, with titles such as Enjoy Your Cells and The Egg and Sperm Race.

I am the Director of the Centre of the Cell, a £4 million biomedical science centre for children, educational website and outreach in Whitechapel. The website was launched in March 2007 and the physical Centre opened in September 2009. As of January 2012 there have been over 42,000 participants in Centre of the Cell activities.

I am a non-parliamentary board member of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, POST, Chair of Understanding Animal Research (UAR) and a member of the Royal Society Faraday Award Committee. I am on the Scientific Advisory Committee of Breakthrough Breast Cancer I was awarded an OBE in the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours list.

Funding

• Affitech Collaboration Grant 2011
  Validation of CCR4 Antibody
  £159,082
• BBSRC Industrial CASE Studentship with AstraZeneca 2009-2013
  Role of Chemokine CXCL12 in Cell-Cell and Cell-Matrix Interactions in Normal and Pathological Processes
  £82,410
• Cancer Research UK Programme Grant 2008-2013
  Targeting Cancer-Related Inflammation
  Approx £1m

Key Publications

• Archibald KM, Kulbe H, Kwong J, Chakravarty P, Temple J, Chaplin T, Flak MB, McNeish IA, Deen S, Brenton JD, Young BD, Balkwill FR. Sequential genetic change at the TP53 and chemokine receptor CXCR4 locus during transformation of human ovarian surface epithelium. Oncogene in press 2012.
  
  
• Kulbe H, Chakravarty P, Leinster DA, Charles KA, Kwong J, Thompson RG, Coward JI, Schioppa T, Robinson SC, Gallagher WM, Galletta L, Salako MA, Smyth JF, Hagemann T, Brennan DJ, Bowtell DD, Balkwill FR. A dynamic inflammatory cytokine network in the human ovarian cancer microenvironment. Cancer Res. 2011 Nov 7. 2011; DOI:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-11-2178
  
  
• Maniati E, Bossard M, Cook N, Candido JB, Emami-Shahri N, Nedospasov SA, Balkwill FR, Tuveson DA, H
  Zagemann T. Crosstalk between the canonical NF-κB and Notch signaling pathways inhibits Pparγ expression and promotes pancreatic cancer progression in mice. J Clin Invest. 2011 Nov 7. pii: 45797. doi: 10.1172/JCI45797. 4685–4699
  
  
• Schioppa T, Moore R, Thompson R, Rosser E, Kulbe H, Nedospasov S, Mauri C, Coussens LM, Balkwill FR. B regulatory cells and the tumor-promoting actions of TNF-α during squamous carcinogenesis. PNAS U S A. 2011 Jun 28;108 (26):10662-7.
  
  
• Charles KA, Kulbe H, Soper R, Escorcio-Correia M, Lawrence T, Schultheis A, Chakravarty S, Thompson RG, Kollias G, Smyth JF, Balkwill FR*, Hagemann T*. The Importance of T cells and IL-17 in the Tumor-Promoting Actions of TNF-a. J Clin Invest 2009: 119(10), 3011-23 *equal contribution

 

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Further Publications

For additional publications, please click here.

Research Group

Lab Manager	Monica Canosa
Centre Administrator	Emily McLean-Inglis
Cytokines and Cancer Group
Gemma Everitt	PhD Student
Ganga Gopinathan	PhD Student
Laura King	PhD Student
Zohra Gueroui	Medical Laboratory Assistant
Dr Chiara Berlato	Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Dr Hagen Kulbe	Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Dr Carla Milagre	Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Dr Anne Montfort	Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Richard Thompson	Research Technician
Tumour Microenvironment
Lily Keane	Research Technician
Jenny Cook	PhD Student
Juliana Candido	hPD Student
Nia Emami-Shahri	PhD Student
Dr Fiona McCarthy	Clinical research Fellow
Dr Cristina Ghirelli	Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Dr Eleni Maniati	Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Dr Raphael Zöllinger	Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Dr Thorsten Hagemann	Clinical Senior Lecturer
B cell Differentiation
Dr Melania Capasso	Lecturer

External Activities

• Centre of the Cell
  Director
• Barts and The London Charity
  Cancer Research Committee
• Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
  Charterhouse Square Working Group (Chair)
• Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST)
  Non-Parliamentary Board Member
• Royal Society
  Michael Faraday Medal Award Committee
• Understanding Animal Research
  Committee Member (Chair)
• Breakthrough Breast Cancer
  Scientific Advisory Commitee Member

News

• February 2011: Awarded the 19th Otto Herz Memorial Cancer Research Lectureship at Tel Aviv University, Israel
• May 2011: Keynote lecturer at the 13th International Meeting on TNF in Japan
• Professor Fran Balkwill's lab in new collaborative agreement to help prove the potential of a new drug programme to treat cancer, click here to read more.