School of Life Sciences
 

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Sally Wheatley

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences

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Expertise Summary

My work focusses on a small protein called "survivin" that is involved in many cellular processes. It has been extensively studied by oncologists as it is highly overexpressed in all cancers. However, it is not an enzyme, and so targetting it for therapeutic gain has not been hugely successful. Survivin does everything in collaboration - its interactome is vast and list of interactors ever increasing. Found in different parts of the cell at different times, as a chromosomal passenger protein, survivin is essential for mitosis and cytokinesis, but it is also an inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) and its presence in the cytoplasm correlates with poor repsonse to chemo and radiation therapies. More recently, it has become appreciated that when it is in the nucleus it can alter transcriptional programming, and this seems to have relevance to cells experience stress such as hypoxia. In identifying novel survivin interactors, we hope to find an association that could be targetted for therapeutic purposes.

Recent Publications

School of Life Sciences

University of Nottingham
Medical School
Queen's Medical Centre
Nottingham NG7 2UH

e: life-sciences@nottingham.ac.uk
t: +44 (0)115 823 0141
f: +44 (0)115 823 0142