
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
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).