About Dr Kevin Petrie
My research focus is to better understand and therapeutically target the factors that disrupt the normal balance between cell growth/survival and differentiation in cancer. Currently, I am interested in two related areas of investigation:
1. The oncogenic MYC transcription factor and its “partners in crime”
2. The roles of retinoic acid receptor isotypes in normal development and cancer
Teaching and supervision
I teach molecular and cell biology in Phase 1 (Years 1 and 2) of undergraduate MBChB Medicine.
I am also the Digital Learning and Teaching Lead and Deputy Admissions Lead for the School of Medicine.
Interests
Areas of investigation for potential PhD students focus on basic and translational cancer research. Potential projects include:
- Novel approaches to target HRAS-driven acute myeloid leukaemia
- Roles of MYC family members in subverting the molecular circadian clock in cancer
- Novel therapeutic approaches in acute myeloid leukaemia based on direct targeting of MYC
- Investigating the role of retinoic acid receptor gamma (RARγ) in cancer
- Understanding the role RARs in the cellular respose triggered by the damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP)
- Development of a new "co-IP" chromatin immunoprecipitation assay.
Research
My research career has focused on understanding and exploiting therapeutically the mechanisms that alter the balance between cell growth/survival and differentiation in cancer.
My research career began in the laboratory of Prof Arthur Zelent at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) where his major research focus was building on ground-breaking work demonstrating that insensitivity to all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) in PLZF-RARa-associated acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) compared to ATRA-responsive PML-RARa-associated APL was underpinned by differential recruitment of a histone deacetylase (HDAC)-containing epigenetic complex.
During my PhD I demonstrated that aberrant epigenetics in TEL-AML1-associated childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia resulted from deregulated recruitment of HDAC epigenetic activity. I went on to identify and characterize histone deacetylase 9 (HDAC9) as the main focus of my PhD.
My current research focus is to better understand the roles of deregulated epigenetics and signaling pathways in cancer in order to guide new therapeutic approaches.
Areas of expertise
- MYC biology
- Epigenetics
- Retinoic acid signalling pathway
- Cancer: biology and genetics
- Cancer: existing and new therapies
- Genetic engineering and gene therapy
Further information
Further information, including citation metrics, can be found on iCite(opens in new tab), Google Scholar(opens in new tab), ResearchGate(opens in new tab), LinkedIn(opens in new tab), and ORCID(opens in new tab).