News
23rd January 2026 - Congratulations to Mai
Congratulations to Mai Alhadrami who passed her PhD Viva yesterday! 🎉
Mai’s project focused on understanding the role of the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) and its processing pathways in prostate cancer.
We're all so proud of you and we can't wait to see what’s next!
6th January 2026 - Meet the Team: Joanne Simpson
“I started working in cancer research in 2006 as a Laboratory Manager, and was delighted to join the Cancer Endocrinology Team in November 2025. I keep our labs running smoothly, from managing the day-to-day chaos to culturing cell lines, DNA/protein work and PPI liaison.
Outside of the lab, I am a member of Bristol Ariel rowing team, where I will happily trade my lab coat for lycra! When not on the water, I can be found flying Cessnas and Pipers over the Mendips, or chilling at home with my husband and two young sons.
18th December 2025 - Christmas celebrations
Merry Christmas from all of us at the Cancer Endocrinology Group! We are delighted to say that we won this year’s Learning and Research Building Christmas quiz! 🎄☃️
9th December 2025 - Medical student visit
This morning we hosted a group of medical students in our labs to share our research as part of the Bristol INSPRE programme. The morning started with a talk from Professor Claire Perks. Then the students entered the labs, where the rest of our group shared information about our cells and various techniques, such as immunohistochemistry and western blotting! This initiative is part of a national programme to encourage medical, veterinary and dentistry students to engage with academic research. We're delighted to play a small part in helping spread the importance of research!
20th November 2025 - Meet the team: Mai Alhadrami.
"Hi, I'm Mai Alhadrami. I'm a senior PhD student in the Cancer Endocrinology Group. My work focuses on understanding the role of the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) and its processing pathways in prostate cancer. I find this exciting intersection between oncology and neurodegenerative disease fascinating! I began my career as a clinical technologist in a hospital setting, but my passion for research pushed me to pursue a Master's degree in tumour biology. I later joined a university in Saudi Arabia, which opened the door for me to advance my academic journey. In 2021, I started my PhD and since then, i've gained extensive experience in a diverse range of laboratory techniques, research methodologies and scientific communication. Outside the lab, I enjoy spending time with my young son and family, catching up with friends, watching movies and listening to inspiring podcasts."
5th November 2025
Last night, Claire Perks was invited to give a talk to a local breast cancer support group, Bosom Buddies, on how lifestyle factors can influence breast cancer. What an inspiring group, and an amazing support for people in Bristol affected by breast cancer! 🎀
15th October 2025 - Meet the team: Dr Rachel Barker.
"Hi, I'm Rachel Barker, a Prostate Cancer UK Research Fellow in the Cancer Endocrinology Group. My research career actually began in Alzheimer's disease and dementia research, which was the focus of my PhD and my first post-doctoral position. When I returned to research following a career break, I was very excited to join the cancer research community, and have since been working primarily on prostate cancer. Given my research background, i'm particularly interested in how some factors affect diseases in different ways, and my current project is examining how amyloid precursor protein, which is very important in Alzheimer's disease, might also have important effects in prostate cancer. Outside of work, I love spending time with my family - playing board games and building lego with my two sons - as well as reading, catching up with friends over a glass of wine and getting out into the countryside.
5th September 2025 - Meet the team: Professor Claire Perks.
"Hi, I'm Claire Perks, a Professor of Cancer Endocrinology at the University of Bristol. I'm the group lead of the Cancer Endocrinology Group, which is part of Bristol Medical School. The team and I study how hormones affect cancer risk and development, on relation to lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise. We then take this knowledge to find better ways to prevent and treat cancer. We focus on a range of cancers, including breast, prostate, bladder and colorectal cancers. Outside of work, I love spending time with my family, getting outdoors for a walk or a jog and relaxing with a good book."
5th September 2025 - Promotion news
We are proud to share that our group lead, Claire Perks has recently been promoted to Professor of Cancer Endocrinology! Huge congratulations from all of us at the Cancer Endocrinology Group! 🎉
September 2025 - new publication
Exciting news! Our paper published last year by PhD student Emily Gill looking into the urgent need to improve bladder cancer treatments, has been selected as one of the 2024 International Journal of Molecular Sciences MDPI highly cited papers!
February 2024 - PhD Success
Congratulations to Omar Alomair who has successfully defended his thesis and passed his PhD with minor corrections. Omar’s PhD was entitled ‘’ The Interplay Between Insulin/IGF-Axis and GRP78 in Colorectal Cancer Development and Response to Fluorouracil’.
Omar will be returning home to Saudi Arabia, and we are very sad to see him go, but wish him all the very best for the future.
January 2024 - new publication from our team
Congratulations to Emily Gill on the publication of her review entitled, ‘Current Bladder Cancer Treatment—The Need for Improvement", that has been published in IJMS as part of the Special Issue Molecular Research and Treatment of Urologic Cancer.
October 2023 – Grant success
We are delighted that our technician, Alfie Chambers, was awarded seed corn funding from the University of Bristol Cancer Research Fund (UCRF). This grant will be used by Alfie to investigate the link between Notch signalling and amyloid precursor protein in prostate cancer. Well done, Alfie!
September 2023 – Welcome to our new PhD student
We are delighted to welcome Omar Alkhatani to our team. Omar’s PhD will be focussed on investigating a potential role for PLEKHS1 in linking obesity, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Welcome to the team, Omar!
July 2023 – Masters Success
Huge congratulations to Zuzana Lickova who has passed her Masters degree. Zuzana’s thesis was entitled, ‘Investigating breast cancer progression in the context of deregulated cholesterol metabolism and determining a role for estrogen receptor beta’. We are very sad to see Zuzana go, but wish her all the very best in her career.
June 2023 – new publications from our team
Congratulations to Abigail Harland on the publication of her paper entitled, Insulin‐Like Growth Factor Binding Protein‐2 and Glucose Regulated Protein 78kDa: potential biomarkers affect prognosis in IDH‐wildtype glioblastoma patients. This study showed that, in glioblastoma, high IGFBP-2 paired with low GRP78 protein abundance was significantly associated with shorter survival time, and hence this inverse relationship may be a marker for adverse clinical prognosis.
Congratulations also to Kalina Biernacka on the publication of her article entitled Case report: Molecular characterisation of adipose-tissue derived cells from a patient with ROHHAD syndrome. This study aimed to better characterise adipose cells from a patient with rapid-onset obesity with hypothalamic dysfunction, hypoventilation, and autonomic dysregulation (ROHHAD) syndrome and showed the most up- and down-regulated genes in ROHHAD cells compared to control cells.
Following the publication of our study investigating a splice variant of the androgen receptor (AR-V7) in prostate cancer, the Bristol Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), which supported this work, have released this news article. Congratulations to everyone involved in this study!
May 2023 – Welcome to the new members of the team
We are delighted to welcome two new members to our team this month. Alfie Chambers is joining us as a part time technician and will primarily be working to maintain our prostate tissue biopsy bank and carry out validation experiments investigating some interesting targets identified through RNA sequencing.
We are also joined by Lily Hadfield who will be with us for 6 weeks whilst she finishes her MRes project looking at the effects of leptin in cancer.
May 2023 – Publication news
Congratulations to Kalina Biernacka on the acceptance of her manuscript entitled ‘A role for androgen receptor variant 7 in sensitivity to therapy: involvement of IGFBP-2 and FOXA1’ in Translational Oncology. This study investigated the role of an alternative splice variant of the androgen receptor in prostate cancer, showing that prostate cancer cells with this variant were more resistant to therapy and had a more aggressive phenotype, and that these effects may be mediated by IGFPB-2 and FOXA1.
April 2023 – PhD Success
Congratulations to Alaa Mohammedali who has successfully defended her thesis and passed her PhD with minor corrections. Alaa’s PhD was entitled ‘A novel role for IGFBP-2 in DNA repair in breast cancer cells’. Alaa will be returning home to Saudi Arabia and we are very sad to see her go, but wish her all the very best for her future.
March 2023 – Fellowship Awarded
We are delighted that Rachel Barker has been awarded a Career Acceleration Fellowship from Prostate Cancer UK. Rachel will be researching the inverse relationship between cancer and Alzheimer’s disease and investigating how processing of amyloid precursor protein impacts prostate cancer risk and progression. Rachel completed her PhD in Alzheimer’s disease research but since joining the Cancer Endocrinology Group, her focus has been on prostate cancer; this project will enable her to follow her passion for research in both areas and she hopes will ultimately lead to lasting benefit for men with prostate cancer.