Dr Pedro R. Cutillas
Research Interests
Dr Pedro Cutillas's main research themes are in: Cancer Cell Biology, Cell Signalling and Mass Spectrometry
The Analytical Signalling group is interested in understanding how a group of proteins, termed kinases, contribute to the onset and progression of cancer.
Several novel cancer drugs now target kinases and show promise in the treatment of cancer. However, in humans there are more than 500 kinase genes and their relative contribution to the biology of cancer is poorly understood. We have investigated new analytical approaches to quantify the activity of kinases in a global fashion, to better define their relative contribution in promoting tumourigenesis.
The aim is to establish robust correlations between kinase pathway activation and cancer cell phenotypes and metabolic alterations, thus defining novel drug targets and markers of kinase activities and drug sensitivities that can be used for personalised targeted therapies.
Our activitomic approaches to profile biochemical pathway activities are based on either phosphoproteomics, metabolomics or on direct measurements of kinase activity using mass spectrometry. Although further refinements are required for these techniques to reach maturity, they can already be used to address a wide array of biological questions.
Our laboratory uses many other different biochemical and cell biological techniques to investigate cancer biology. We are now using these techniques in concert with mass spectrometry-based analysis of pathway activities to investigate:
- The biochemical properties by which kinase pathways control fundamental physiology;
- How the heterogeneous nature of kinase expression and activation contributes to resistance of cancer cells to drugs;
- The interrelation between signalling and metabolic pathways in cancer.
Profile
- 2010-present, Senior Lecturer, Barts Cancer Institute, QMUL
- 2007-2010, Lecturer, Barts Cancer Institute, QMUL
- 2003-2007, Postdoctoral Scientist, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, UCL Branch, London
- 2000-2003, PhD Biochemistry, University College London
- 1997-2000, BSc Biochemistry, Kings College London
Funding
- Barts and The London Charity; Biological mass spectrometry for cancer research; 01/05/09 31/12/13; value: £492,000 PI: Pedro R. Cutillas. Other applicants: Bart Vanhaesebroeck, Nick Lemoine, Simon Joel
- BBSRC; In depth quantification and characterisation of PI 3-kinase signalling networks 01/03/09 29/02/12. Value: £335,000; PI: Pedro R. Cutillas. Other applicants: Bart Vanhaesebroeck
- CRUK; Dissecting the role of PIK3CA oncogenic signalling in the bioenergetic metabolism of colorectal cancer cells; 01/12/08 29/11/11; value: £180,000. Co-PIs: Pedro R. Cutillas & Bart Vanhaesebroeck
- MRC PhD Studentship; Dissecting the proteomics of phosphoinositide 3-kinase signalling; 01/10/08 29/09/11; Value £72,000. PI: Pedro R. Cutillas
- FP7 Marie Curie Fellowship: PI3K systems biology. 01/01/2011-31/12/2012 (Fellowship to JC Rodriguez-Prados in Cutillas’ laboratory)
Key Publications
Cutillas PR, Jørgensen C. Biological signalling activity measurements using
mass spectrometry. Biochem J. 2011 Feb 11;434(2):189-99. PubMed PMID: 21309748.
Montoya A, Beltran L, Casado P, Rodríguez-Prados JC, Cutillas PR. Characterization of a TiO(2) enrichment method for label-free quantitative phosphoproteomics. Methods. 2011 Feb 10. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 21316455.
Casado P, Cutillas PR. A self-validating quantitative mass spectrometry method for assessing the accuracy of high-content phosphoproteomic experiments. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2011 Jan;10(1):M110.003079. Epub 2010 Oct 24. PubMed PMID: 20972267; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3013456. PMID: 20972267
Alcolea MP, Kleiner O, Cutillas PR. Increased confidence in large-scale phosphoproteomics data by complementary mass spectrometric techniques and matching of phosphopeptide data sets. J Proteome Res. 2009 Aug;8(8):3808-15. PubMed PMID: 19537829.
Further Publications
For additional publications, please click here.
Research Group
Analytical Signalling Group
Members:
- Pedro R. Cutillas, Group Head, Senior Lecturer
- Luisa Beltran, PhD Student
- Pedro Casado, Post-doctoral scientist
- Alex Montoya, Research technician
- Juan-Carlos Rodriguez-Prados, Post-doctoral scientist
- Vinothini Sivarajah, Post-doctoral scientist
External Activities
- Academic Founder and Non-Executive Director, Activiomics Ltd
- Member of Steering Committee, London Biological Mass Spectrometry Discussion Group (interest group of the British Mass Spectrometry Society, www.lbmsdg.org)
- Editor of book: LC-MS in Proteomics. Cutillas PR and Timms J Editors. Humana Press 2010
