Transgenic Models of Cancer
Group Leader:
Prof Karen Blyth
Our lab strives to recapitulate human cancer in preclinical mouse models and interrogate all aspects of disease progression within a biological context. With the aim of identifying novel therapeutic approaches for patient benefit, we use physiologically relevant models to validate in vitro discoveries. This involves state-of-the art genetic, and refined transplantation models, often in combination with in vivo imaging modalities, which allow us to study how oncogenic pathways, altered metabolism and the tumour microenvironment contributor to cancer and how these can be exploited for earlier detection and therapeutic gain.
Lab Members
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Recent Publications
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Recent Publications
2025
Hashemi, A., Liu, M.R., Chan, J.Z., Berdeklis, A.N., Cocco, A.D., Tomczewski, M.V., Strathdee, D., Stark, K.D., Duncan, R.E., 2025. Plaat1 deficiency reduces cardiac cardiolipin content and impairs exercise tolerance. J Lipid Res 100822.
Kanellos, G., Giacomelli, C., Raven, A., Vlahov, N., Jin, H., Herviou, P., Malla, S.B., Nasreddin, N., Centeno, P.P., Alexandrou, C., Gilroy, K., Baird, R.L., Pennel, K., Munro, J., Waldron, J.A., Hall, H., Officer-Jones, L., Bryson, S., Strathdee, D., Lilla, S., Zanivan, S., Morrison, V., Nixon, C., Ridgway, R.A., Miller, C., Knight, J.R.P., Campbell, A.D., Dunne, P.D., Le Quesne, J., Edwards, J., Park, P.J., Bushell, M., Sansom, O.J., 2025. Nucleophosmin supports WNT-driven hyperproliferation and tumor initiation. Nat Genet 58, 100–115.
Raven, A., Gilroy, K., Jin, H., Waldron, J.A., Leslie, H., Munro, J., Hall, H., Ridgway, R.A., Ford, C.A., Gulhan, D.C., Vlahov, N., Mills, M.L., Hartley, A., Anderson, E., Bryson, S., Sphyris, N., Müller, M., May, S., Cadden, B., Nixon, C., Waddell, S.H., Guest, R., Boulter, L., Barker, N., Clevers, H., Zhu, H., Ivaska, J., Strathdee, D., Miller, C.J., Jamieson, N.B., Bushell, M., Park, P.J., Bird, T.G., Sansom, O.J., 2025. Hepatic zonation determines tumorigenic potential of mutant β-catenin. Nature 649, 739–748.
Zakrzewski, P., Rice, C.M., Fleming, K., Cela, D., Groves, S.J., Ponce-Garcia, F.M., Gibbs, W., Roberts, K., Pike, T., Strathdee, D., Anderson, E., Nobbs, A.H., Toye, A.M., Steward, C., Amulic, B., 2025. Tafazzin regulates neutrophil maturation and inflammatory response. EMBO Rep.
2024
Cheung, E.C., Strathdee, D., Stevenson, D., Coomes, J., Blyth, K., Vousden, K.H., 2024. Regulation of ROS signaling by TIGAR induces cancer-modulating responses in the tumor microenvironment. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 121(50), e2416076121.
Najumudeen, A.K., Fey, S.K., Millett, L.M., Ford, C.A., Gilroy, K., Gunduz, N., Ridgway, R.A., Anderson, E., Strathdee, D., Clark, W., Nixon, C., Morton, J.P., Campbell, A.D., Sansom, O.J., 2024. KRAS allelic imbalance drives tumour initiation yet suppresses metastasis in colorectal cancer in vivo. Nat Commun 15(1), 100.
Whyte, D., Voorde, J.V., Sumpton, D., Dhayade, S., Dornier, E., Moore, M., Novo, D., Peters, J., Wiesheu, R., Mackey, J.B.G., McFarlane, A.J., Fercoq, F., Fisher, S., Caballero, C.D., Gilroy, K., Redmond, K.L., Mitchell, L.E., Anderson, E., Thomson, G., Dzierozynski, L.N., Saab, J.J.A., Lewis, C.A., Muir, A., Halbrook, C.J., Strathdee, D., Jackstadt, R., Nixon, C., Dunne, P., Steele, C.W., Carlin, L.M., Macpherson, I.R., Roberts, E.W., Coffelt, S.B., Blyth, K., Sansom, O.J., Norman, J.C., Clarke, C.J., 2024. Uridine Phosphorylase-1 supports metastasis of mammary cancer by altering immune and extracellular matrix landscapes of the lung. bioRxiv.
2023
Hennequart, M., Pilley, S.E., Labuschagne, C.F., Coomes, J., Mervant, L., Driscoll, P.C., Legrave, N.M., Lee, Y., Kreuzaler, P., Macintyre, B., Panina, Y., Blagih, J., Stevenson, D., Strathdee, D., Schneider-Luftman, D., Grönroos, E., Cheung, E.C., Yuneva, M., Swanton, C., Vousden, K.H., 2023. ALDH1L2 regulation of formate, formyl-methionine, and ROS controls cancer cell migration and metastasis. Cell Rep 42, 112562.
Moore, M., Pardo, L., Mitchell, L., Schmidt, T., May, S., Mueller, M., Strathdee, D., Bryson, S., Hodge, K., Lilla, S., Zanivan, S., Waldron, J., McGarry, L., Peter-Durairaj, R., Kanellos, G., Nixon, C., Ballantyne, F., LeQuesne, J., Sansom, O.J., Bird, T., Bushell, M., Norman, J.C., 2023. The eIF4A2 negative regulator of mRNA translation promotes extracellular matrix deposition to accelerate hepatocellular carcinoma initiation. bioRxiv.
Perera, G., Power, L., Larson, A., Codden, C.J., Awata, J., Batorsky, R., Strathdee, D., Chin, M.T., 2023. Single Cell Transcriptomic Analysis in a Mouse Model of Barth Syndrome Reveals Cell-Specific Alterations in Gene Expression and Intercellular Communication. Int J Mol Sci 24, 11594.
Tomczewski, M.V., Chan, J.Z., Campbell, Z.E., Strathdee, D., Duncan, R.E., 2023. Phenotypic Characterization of Male Tafazzin-Knockout Mice at 3, 6, and 12 Months of Age. Biomedicines 11, 638.
Wang, S., Yazawa, E., Keating, E., Mazumdar, N., Hauschild, A., Ma, Q., Wu, H., Xu, Y., Shi, X., Strathdee, D., Gerszten, R.E., Schlame, M., Pu, W.T., 2023. Genetic modifiers modulate phenotypic expression of tafazzin deficiency in a mouse model of Barth syndrome. Hum Mol Genet 32, 2055–2067.
2022
Baudot, A.D., Wang, V.M., Leach, J.D., O’Prey, J., Long, J.S., Paulus-Hock, V., Lilla, S., Thomson, D.M., Greenhorn, J., Ghaffar, F., Nixon, C., Helfrich, M.H., Strathdee, D., Pratt, J., Marchesi, F., Zanivan, S., Ryan, K.M., 2022. Glycan degradation promotes macroautophagy. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 119(26), e2111506119.
Flanagan, D.J., Amirkhah, R., Vincent, D.F., Gundaz, N., Gentaz, P., Cammareri, P., McCooey, A.J., McCorry, A.M.B., Fisher, N.C., Davis, H.L., Ridgway, R.A., Lohuis, J., Leach, J.D.G., Jackstadt, R., Gilroy, K., Mariella, E., Nixon, C., Clark, W., Hedley, A., Markert, E.K., Strathdee, D., Bartholin, L., Redmond, K.L., Kerr, E.M., Longley, D.B., Ginty, F., Cho, S., Coleman, H.G., Loughrey, M.B., Bardelli, A., Maughan, T.S., Campbell, A.D., Lawler, M., Leedham, S.J., Barry, S.T., Inman, G.J., van Rheenen, J., Dunne, P.D., Sansom, O.J., 2022. Epithelial TGFβ engages growth-factor signalling to circumvent apoptosis and drive intestinal tumourigenesis with aggressive features. Nat Commun 13, 7551.
Humpton, T.J., Hock, A.K., Kiourtis, C., De Donatis, M., Fercoq, F., Nixon, C., Bryson, S., Strathdee, D., Carlin, L.M., Bird, T.G., Blyth, K., Vousden, K.H., 2022. A noninvasive iRFP713 p53 reporter reveals dynamic p53 activity in response to irradiation and liver regeneration in vivo. Sci Signal 15, eabd9099.
2021
Gudiño, V., Pohl, S., Billard, C.V., Cammareri, P., Bolado, A., Aitken, S., Stevenson, D., Hall, A.E., Agostino, M., Cassidy, J., Nixon, C., von Kriegsheim, A., Freile, P., Popplewell, L., Dickson, G., Murphy, L., Wheeler, A., Dunlop, M., Din, F., Strathdee, D., Sansom, O.J., Myant, K.B., 2021. RAC1B modulates intestinal tumourigenesis via modulation of WNT and EGFR signalling pathways. Nat Commun 12, 2335.
Humpton, T.J., Nomura, K., Weber, J., Magnussen, H.M., Hock, A.K., Nixon, C., Dhayade, S., Stevenson, D., Huang, D.T., Strathdee, D., Blyth, K., Vousden, K.H., 2021. Differential requirements for MDM2 E3 activity during embryogenesis and in adult mice. Genes & development 35(1-2), 117–132.
Julian, L., Naylor, G., Wickman, G.R., Rath, N., Castino, G., Stevenson, D., Bryson, S., Munro, J., McGarry, L., Mullin, M., Rice, A., Del Río Hernández, A., Olson, M.F., 2021. Defective apoptotic cell contractility provokes sterile inflammation, leading to liver damage and tumour suppression. eLife 10, e61983.
Leach, J.D.G., Vlahov, N., Tsantoulis, P., Ridgway, R.A., Flanagan, D.J., Gilroy, K., Sphyris, N., Vázquez, E.G., Vincent, D.F., Faller, W.J., Hodder, M.C., Raven, A., Fey, S., Najumudeen, A.K., Strathdee, D., Nixon, C., Hughes, M., Clark, W., Shaw, R., van Hooff, S.R., Huels, D.J., Medema, J.P., Barry, S.T., Frame, M.C., Unciti-Broceta, A., Leedham, S.J., Inman, G.J., Jackstadt, R., Thompson, B.J., Campbell, A.D., Tejpar, S., Sansom, O.J., 2021. Oncogenic BRAF, unrestrained by TGFβ-receptor signalling, drives right-sided colonic tumorigenesis. Nat Commun 12, 3464.
Najumudeen, A.K., Ceteci, F., Fey, S.K., Hamm, G., Steven, R.T., Hall, H., Nikula, C.J., Dexter, A., Murta, T., Race, A.M., Sumpton, D., Vlahov, N., Gay, D.M., Knight, J.R.P., Jackstadt, R., Leach, J.D.G., Ridgway, R.A., Johnson, E.R., Nixon, C., Hedley, A., et al., 2021. The amino acid transporter SLC7A5 is required for efficient growth of KRAS-mutant colorectal cancer. Nat Genet 53, 16–26.
Pickering, K.A., Gilroy, K., Cassidy, J.W., Fey, S.K., Najumudeen, A.K., Zeiger, L.B., Vincent, D.F., Gay, D.M., Johansson, J., Fordham, R.P., Miller, B., Clark, W., Hedley, A., Unal, E.B., Kiel, C., McGhee, E., Machesky, L.M., Nixon, C., Johnsson, A.E., Bain, M., et al., 2021. A RAC-GEF network critical for early intestinal tumourigenesis. Nat Commun 12, 56.
Swaminathan, K., Campbell, A., Papalazarou, V., Jaber-Hijazi, F., Nixon, C., McGhee, E., Strathdee, D., Sansom, O.J., Machesky, L.M., 2021. The RAC1 Target NCKAP1 Plays a Crucial Role in the Progression of Braf;Pten-Driven Melanoma in Mice. J Invest Dermatol 141(3), 628–637.e615.
2020
Corrado, M., Edwards-Hicks, J., Villa, M., Flachsmann, L.J., Sanin, D.E., Jacobs, M., Baixauli, F., Stanczak, M., Anderson, E., Azuma, M., Quintana, A., Curtis, J.D., Clapes, T., Grzes, K.M., Kabat, A.M., Kyle, R., Patterson, A.E., Geltink, R.K., Amulic, B., Steward, C.G., Strathdee, D., Trompouki, E., O’Sullivan, D., Pearce, E.J., Pearce, E.L., 2020. Dynamic Cardiolipin Synthesis Is Required for CD8(+) T Cell Immunity. Cell Metab 32(6), 981–995.e987.
Loveridge, C.J., Slater, S., Campbell, K.J., Nam, N.A., Knight, J., Ahmad, I., Hedley, A., Lilla, S., Repiscak, P., Patel, R., Salji, M., Fleming, J., Mitchell, L., Nixon, C., Strathdee, D., Neilson, M., Ntala, C., Bryson, S., Zanivan, S., Edwards, J., Robson, C.N., Goodyear, C.S., Blyth, K., Leung, H.Y., 2020. BRF1 accelerates prostate tumourigenesis and perturbs immune infiltration. Oncogene 39, 1797–1806.
Nobis, M., Herrmann, D., Warren, S.C., Strathdee, D., Cox, T.R., Anderson, K.I., Timpson, P., 2020. Shedding new light on RhoA signalling as a drug target in vivo using a novel RhoA-FRET biosensor mouse. Small GTPases 11(4), 240–247.
Swaminathan, K., Campbell, A., Papalazarou, V., Jaber-Hijazi, F., Nixon, C., McGhee, E., Strathdee, D., Sansom, O.J., Machesky, L.M., 2020. The RAC1 target NCKAP1 plays a crucial role in progression of BRAF/PTEN -driven melanoma in mice. J Invest Dermatol.
Wang, S., Li, Y., Xu, Y., Ma, Q., Lin, Z., Schlame, M., Bezzerides, V.J., Strathdee, D., Pu, W.T., 2020. AAV Gene Therapy Prevents and Reverses Heart Failure in A Murine Knockout Model of Barth Syndrome. Circulation research 126, 1024–1039.
2018
Christodoulou, N., Weberling, A., Strathdee, D., Anderson, K.I., Timpson, P., Zernicka-Goetz, M., 2019. Morphogenesis of extra-embryonic tissues directs the remodelling of the mouse embryo at implantation. Nature communications 10, 3557.
Liko, D., Mitchell, L., Campbell, K.J., Ridgway, R.A., Jones, C., Dudek, K., King, A., Bryson, S., Stevenson, D., Blyth, K., Strathdee, D., Morton, J.P., Bird, T.G., Knight, J.R.P., Willis, A.E., Sansom, O.J., 2019. Brf1 loss and not overexpression disrupts tissues homeostasis in the intestine, liver and pancreas. Cell Death Differ 26, 2535–2550.
Ren, M., Xu, Y., Erdjument-Bromage, H., Donelian, A., Phoon, C.K.L., Terada, N., Strathdee, D., Neubert, T.A., Schlame, M., 2019. Extramitochondrial cardiolipin suggests a novel function of mitochondria in spermatogenesis. J Cell Biol 218(5), 1491–1502.
Schmidt, S., Gay, D., Uthe, F.W., Denk, S., Paauwe, M., Matthes, N., Diefenbacher, M.E., Bryson, S., Warrander, F.C., Erhard, F., Ade, C.P., Baluapuri, A., Walz, S., Jackstadt, R., Ford, C., Vlachogiannis, G., Valeri, N., Otto, C., Schulein-Volk, C., Maurus, K., Schmitz, W., Knight, J.R.P., Wolf, E., Strathdee, D., Schulze, A., Germer, C.T., Rosenwald, A., Sansom, O.J., Eilers, M., Wiegering, A., 2019. A MYC-GCN2-eIF2alpha negative feedback loop limits protein synthesis to prevent MYC-dependent apoptosis in colorectal cancer. Nature cell biology 21, 1413–1424.
2018
Konjar, S., Frising, U.C., Ferreira, C., Hinterleitner, R., Mayassi, T., Zhang, Q., Blankenhaus, B., Haberman, N., Loo, Y., Guedes, J., Baptista, M., Innocentin, S., Stange, J., Strathdee, D., Jabri, B., et al., 2018. Mitochondria maintain controlled activation state of epithelial-resident T lymphocytes. Sci Immunol 3(24), eaan2543.
Lou, W., Reynolds, C.A., Li, Y., Liu, J., Huttemann, M., Schlame, M., Stevenson, D., Strathdee, D., Greenberg, M.L., 2018. Loss of tafazzin results in decreased myoblast differentiation in C2C12 cells: A myoblast model of Barth syndrome and cardiolipin deficiency. Biochim Biophys Acta 1863(8), 857–65.
Nobis, M., Herrmann, D., Warren, S.C., Strathdee, D., Cox, T.R., Anderson, K.I., Timpson, P., 2018. Shedding new light on RhoA signalling as a drug target in vivo using a novel RhoA-FRET biosensor mouse. Small GTPases.
Warren, S.C., Nobis, M., Magenau, A., Mohammed, Y.H., Herrmann, D., Moran, I., Vennin, C., Conway, J.R., Melenec, P., Cox, T.R., Wang, Y., Morton, J.P., Welch, H.C., Strathdee, D., Anderson, K.I., et al., 2018. Removing physiological motion from intravital and clinical functional imaging data. Elife 7, e35800.
Woroniuk, A., Porter, A., White, G., Newman, D.T., Diamantopoulou, Z., Waring, T., Rooney, C., Strathdee, D., Marston, D.J., Hahn, K.M., Sansom, O.J., Zech, T., Malliri, A., 2018. STEF/TIAM2-mediated Rac1 activity at the nuclear envelope regulates the perinuclear actin cap. Nat Commun 9(1), 2124.
2017
Hock, A.K., Cheung, E.C., Humpton, T.J., Monteverde, T., Paulus-Hock, V., Lee, P., McGhee, E., Scopelliti, A., Murphy, D.J., Strathdee, D., Blyth, K., Vousden, K.H., 2017. Development of an inducible mouse model of iRFP713 to track recombinase activity and tumour development in vivo. Sci Rep 7, 1837.
Nobis, M., Herrmann, D., Warren, S.C., Kadir, S., Leung, W., Killen, M., Magenau, A., Stevenson, D., Lucas, M.C., Reischmann, N., Vennin, C., Conway, J.R.W., Boulghourjian, A., Zaratzian, A., Law, A.M., Gallego-Ortega, D., Ormandy, C.J., Walters, S.N., Grey, S.T., Bailey, J., et al., 2017. A RhoA-FRET Biosensor Mouse for Intravital Imaging in Normal Tissue Homeostasis and Disease Contexts. Cell Rep 21, 274–88.
van de Lagemaat, L.N., Stanford, L.E., Pettit, C.M., Strathdee, D.J., Strathdee, K.E., Elsegood, K.A., Fricker, D.G., Croning, M.D., Komiyama, N.H., Grant, S.G., 2017. Standardized experiments in mutant mice reveal behavioural similarity on 129S5 and C57BL/6J backgrounds. Genes Brain Behav 16, 409–18.
2016
Birch, J., Clarke, C.J., Campbell, A.D., Campbell, K., Mitchell, L., Liko, D., Kalna, G., Strathdee, D., Sansom, O.J., Neilson, M., Blyth, K., Norman, J.C., 2016. The initiator methionine tRNA drives cell migration and invasion leading to increased metastatic potential in melanoma. Biol Open 5, 1371–1379.
Walton, J., Blagih, J., Ennis, D., Leung, E., Dowson, S., Farquharson, M., Tookman, L.A., Orange, C., Athineos, D., Mason, S., Stevenson, D., Blyth, K., Strathdee, D., Balkwill, F.R., Vousden, K.H., Lockley, M., McNeish, I.A., 2016. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated Trp53 and Brca2 knockout to generate improved murine models of ovarian high grade serous carcinoma. Cancer Res 76(20), 6118–6129.
Staff Scientist
Louise Mitchell
I am a staff scientist based in the lab of Karen Blyth, which I joined at the end of 2022. My day-today job is primarily to assist Karen in managing her collaborative studies. I am originally from the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. My journey in science began with my undergraduate studies in Science at the University of Queensland in Australia. This foundation fuelled my desire to explore the field further and broaden my horizons, so I moved to Scotland to complete my undergraduate studies and pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Glasgow.
Outside of my professional life, I am a sports enthusiast and enjoy outdoor activities like hiking, swimming, cycling, and tennis. I also enjoy cooking, watching series and movies, and exploring nature. Family is incredibly important to me, and I cherish the time I spend with my loved ones.
Principal Scientific Officer
Dimitris Athineos
I am the lab’s Principal Scientific Officer and have been at the Institute since 2005, first as a post-doc, after obtaining my Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow, and then as scientific officer. I have a diverse range of responsibilities, but my main expertise is in vivo models of cancer, having worked with a number of them over the years. I also collaborate with and provide support to other groups at the Institute for their in vivo work, as well as help with day-to-day running of the lab. In my downtime, I enjoy gaming and recently rediscovered my appreciation for live music (of the heavy variety).
Senior Scientific Officer
Jayanthi Anand
As a Senior Scientific Officer, I focus on in vivo cancer models and IVIS imaging for studying cancer growth and treatment responses. My responsibilities include using advanced imaging techniques to monitor tumour progression and treatment outcomes in real-time. Prior to joining CRUK, I completed my Ph.D. in cancer biology at the University of Freiburg, Germany. I also gained experience as a postdoctoral fellow at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel, Switzerland, and at the Tumour Biology Center in Freiburg. At CRUK, I collaborate with teams both within the institute and across the UK to advance new cancer treatments. We use preclinical models to understand how potential therapies might work in patients. In my free time, I find joy in baking, cooking, dancing, and exploring nature, which helps me relax and stay happy.
Senior Scientific Officer
Laura Galbraith
I am one of the Senior Scientific officers in the lab, I joined the lab in 2020 to follow my interest in in vivo modelling of cancer. My role is to support the day to day activities of the lab and researchers, involvement in collaborative projects both within the institute and externally, as well as perusing my own research focusing on the role of Runx2 breast and prostate cancer. I have been at the CRUK Scotland Institute since beginning my PhD in 2009, with a brief hiatus in 2014 when I travelled to Australia for a year to work in the Walter and Eliza hall Institute in Melbourne. Outside of the lab my interests lie in outdoor activities, particularly those involving being on or in the water; sailing, surfing, stand-up paddle boarding and swimming. I also enjoy travelling and visiting new places, particularly places with good food to try!
Senior Scientific Officer
Dale Watt
I am a Senior Scientific Officer within the lab working predominantly on in vivo models of cancer. I work as part of the National Mouse Genetics Network in the Cancer Cluster group where we aim to develop and improve in vivo cancer models in order to align these better with human disease. I obtained my PhD at the CRUK Scotland institute in the field of Pancreatic Cancer and have an honours degree in Immunology from the University of Glasgow.