School of Veterinary Medicine and Science

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Nigel Mongan

Professor of Oncology, Faculty of VC's Office

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Biography

Dr. Mongan was awarded his doctorate in molecular signaling from Queens' College, the University of Cambridge. He completed postdoctoral training in molecular endocrinology with Professor Ieuan Hughes at the Department of Paediatrics at Addenbrookes Hospital, University of Cambridge and with Professor Lorraine Gudas in molecular pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York. He became a faculty member at Weill Cornell Medical College in 2004, where he retains an adjunct faculty position. In 2009 he joined the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science of the University of Nottingham and became a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2015.

Expertise Summary

Dr. Mongan's research expertise relate to endocrine signaling pathways and how these contribute to prostate, breast and ovarian cancers.

Teaching Summary

Dr. Mongan delivers the Oncology theme for the year 3 research module in the veterinary curriculum.

Dr. Mongan contributes teaching in endocrinology (D12ECN), and for University's Center for Cancer Sciences on breast and prostate cancer treatments, precision medicine and to Masters programs in Oncology, Stem Cell Biology and Pathology.

Dr. Mongan is also an invited lecturer for the pharmacology doctoral program signal transduction course at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Research Summary

My group are focused on nuclear receptor-mediated transcriptional regulation in stem cells, early embryonic development and human cancer. We have deciphered key molecular pathways involving… read more

Selected Publications

University of Nottingham-SVMS

Dr. Corinne Woodcock, Prostate Cancer UK Career Acceleration Fellow

Dr. Anna Harris

Rodhan Patke

Rachel Thompson

Maria Haque (with Dr. Catrin Rutland)

Dhruvika Varun (with Dr. Jennie Jeyapalan)

Jorja Jackson-Oxley (with Dr. Catrin Rutland)

Dr. Ayat Lashen (with Professor Emad Rakha)

Dr. Shorouok Makhlouf (with professor Emad Rakha)

Dr. Nehal Atallah (with Professor Emad Rakha)

Suzan Ghannam (with Professor Emad Rakha)

Key collaborators

Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, USA

Professor Lorraine Gudas

Dr. Brian Robinson

Dr. Francesca Khani

Mayo Clinic, MN, USA

Dr. Stephen Boorjian

Umea University, Sweden

Professor Jenny Persson

Morehouse School of Medicine

Professor Melissa Davis

MedUni Wien

Professor Lukas Kenner

Former Team Members

Dr. Jennie Jeyapalan

Dr. Nataliya Blatt

Dr. Daisy Haigh

Dr. Simone de Brot

Dr. Veronika Metzler

Dr. Atara Ntekim

Dr. Jennifer Edwards

Dr. Siobhan Simpson

Dr. Vandana Kumar Rani

Dr. Emeli M Nilsson

Dr. Sandie Choong

Dr. Jonathan Whitchurch (with David Heery)

Dr. Lola Ruiz-Diaz (with Catrin Rutland)

Dr. Emma Lund (with Catrin Rutland)

Dr. Ryan Cardenas (with Cinzia Allegrucci)

Andrew McWilliam

Catherine Ennett

James Brateley

Sinead Kenna

Jenny Price

Grace Slater

Francesca Davidson

Bethan Hann

Jad Abouzeid

Natalie Calthorpe

Seamus Whitehead

Current Research

My group are focused on nuclear receptor-mediated transcriptional regulation in stem cells, early embryonic development and human cancer. We have deciphered key molecular pathways involving androgens, estrogens and retinoids in urological and endocrine cancers. We are actively collaborating with commercial partners and international centres of academic research excellence with a view to exploiting this knowledge to develop novel genetic screens for cancer susceptibility, new biomarkers for early diagnostics and to identify new therapeutic targets for improved treatment responses.

One research focus concerns the physiological roles of the androgen (AR) and estrogen receptors (ERalpha and ERbeta) and related ligand dependent transcription factors in development and cancer. In the presence of their respective hormones, the AR and ERalpha/beta regulate gene expression by recruiting multiple epigenetic coregulators to the regulatory regions of target genes. The AR and ER alpha/beta are key regulators of sex-associated traits and are implicated in cancers affecting people. Both AR and ER pathways play crucial roles in the development of prostate, bladder and other malignancies.

The goals of my research are to advance our understanding of the roles of the androgen and estrogen pathways in development, fertility and cancer; to identify new biomarkers of cancer outcome and to identify novel therapeutic targets for hormonally regulated cancers. We are using molecular biology, human cell cultures and clinical research methodologies, including comparative veterinary models of cancer, to achieve these goals. I collaborate with colleagues at the vet school and at the Clinical Research Centre, Lund University (Sweden), Copenhagen University (Denmark), Cork Cancer Center (Ireland), Weill Cornell Medical College (NYC, USA) and the Mayo Clinic (MN, USA).

School of Veterinary Medicine and Science

University of Nottingham
Sutton Bonington Campus
Leicestershire, LE12 5RD

telephone: +44 (0)115 951 6116
fax: +44 (0)115 951 6415
email: veterinary-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk