Centre for Cancer Sciences
 

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Nigel Mongan

Professor of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences

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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 may contribute to human developmental and reproductive disorders and cancer.

Teaching Summary

Dr. Mongan is module convenor, with Dr. Catrin Rutland and Dr. Vicky James, for the research project module (D13Pro) which runs in year 2 and year 3 of the veterinary curriculum.

Dr. Mongan contributes teaching in endocrinology (D12ECN), protein biochemistry (D11LCB, D10CSB) and PPS (D11PPS, D12PPS) and Masters in Oncology.

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

Dr. Jennifer Lothion-Roy (with Rupert Fray, Emad Rakha and Catrin Rutland)

Anna Harris (with Rupert Fray, Emad Rakha and Catrin Rutland)

Key collaborators

Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, USA

Professor Lorraine Gudas

Dr. Brian Robinson

Dr. Francesca Khani

Mayo Clinic, MN, USA

Dr. Stephen Boorjian

Lund University, Sweden

Dr. Jenny Persson

Cork Cancer Research Center-Ireland

Dr. Sharon McKenna

Dr. Nina Orfali

Dr. Dalyia Benjamin

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).

Centre for Cancer Sciences

The University of Nottingham
Centre for Biomolecular Sciences
Nottingham, NG7 2RD


telephone: +44 (0) 115 823 1546
email: MS-CCS@nottingham.ac.uk