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About CRUK Scotland Institute

Find out what we do, how we do it and why we do what we do.

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Life in Glasgow

Find out about living and working in Glasgow and Scotland.

Our Research

Explore the science at CRUK Scotland Institute. Our research groups, the people who lead them, and how we work.

Operations

The teams and services that keep the Institute running and support our research.

Partners

The networks and organisations we work with to accelerate cancer research.

Careers & Study

Jobs, studentships and opportunities for students at every stage at our world-renowned cancer research institute.

Studentships

PhD opportunities at the Institute

Studentship Vacancies

Open studentships to apply for

Internships

For undergraduate and masters students

Oncogene-Induced Vulnerabilities

Group Leader:
Prof Daniel J Murphy

Oncogenic signalling profoundly alters how cells respond to their environment, typically putting tumour cells under tremendous pressure to reconcile conflicting cues. For example, tumour cells must re-organise their metabolic pathways to balance competing needs for biosynthetic precursors with energetic homeostasis, commonly while surviving in a milieu of limiting oxygen and nutrients.

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Lab Reports

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Recent Publications

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Lab Members

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Recent Publications

2026

Pardo L, Moore M, Deshmukh R, Powley I, Waldron JA, Kruspig B, McGarry L, Dolma L, Campos AV, Wood C, Leslie H, Hughes M, Jeldes E, Munro J, Mitchell L, Officer-Jones L, Baird R, Coquelet H, Jamieson NB, Sumpton D, Strathdee D, le Quesne J, Bushell M, Murphy DJ, Norman JC. Increased mRNA translation delays tumour initiation and exposes a therapeutic vulnerability in lung cancer. Mol Cancer. 2026.

Raffo-Iraolagoitia XL, McFarlane AJ, Laing S, Corbyn R, Arnott LWG, Fercoq F, McGarry L, Secklehner J, De Donatis M, Mackey JBG, Kruspig B, Wiesheu R, Hsieh YC, Shaw R, Rakovic K, Le Quesne J, Clark G, Nixon C, Miller C, Kirschner K, Bain CC, Murphy DJ, Coffelt SB, Carlin LM. Vγ1 γδ T cells steer airway macrophages toward a profibrotic response in an autochthonous lung cancer mouse model. Sci Adv. 2026;12(10):eadu8802.

2025

Müller M, May S, Hall H, Kendall TJ, McGarry L, Blukacz L, Nuciforo S, Georgakopoulou A, Jamieson T, Phinichkusolchit N, Dhayade S, Suzuki T, Huguet-Pradell J, Powley IR, Officer-Jones L, Pennie RL, Esteban-Fabró R, Gris-Oliver A, Pinyol R, Skalka GL, Leslie J, Hoare M, Sprangers J, Malviya G, Mackintosh A, Johnson E, McCain M, Halpin J, Kiourtis C, Nixon C, Clark G, Clark W, Shaw R, Hedley A, Drake TM, Tan EH, Neilson M, Murphy DJ, Lewis DY, Reeves HL, Le Quesne J, Mann DA, Carlin LM, Blyth K, Llovet JM, Heim MH, Sansom OJ, Miller CJ, Bird TG. Human-correlated genetic models identify precision therapy for liver cancer. Nature. 2025.

Rovers S, Farahmand P, Liu D, Brants L, Hermans C, Peeters D, McKinven D, Doig J, Lardon F, van Meerbeeck J, Marcq E, Murphy DJ, Smits E. A Minimally Invasive Transthoracic Injection Technique for Reproducible Intrapleural Delivery in Mice. Methods Protoc. 2025(3).

Seyedshahi F, Rakovic K, Poulain N, Claudio Quiros A, Powley IR, Richards C, Uraiby H, Klebe S, Moore DA, Nakas A, Wilson CR, Sereno M, Officer-Jones L, Ficken C, Teodosio A, Ballantyne F, Murphy D, Yuan K, Le Quesne J. A histomorphological atlas of resected mesothelioma discovered by self-supervised learning from 3446 whole-slide images. Nat Commun. 2025;16(1):8891.

2024

Vincelette ND, Yu X, Kuykendall AT, Moon J, Su S, Cheng CH, Sammut R, Razabdouski TN, Nguyen HV, Eksioglu EA, Chan O, Al Ali N, Patel PC, Lee DH, Nakanishi S, Ferreira RB, Hyjek E, Mo Q, Cory S, Lawrence HR, Zhang L, Murphy DJ, Komrokji RS, Lee D, Kaufmann SH, Cleveland JL, Yun S. Trisomy 8 Defines a Distinct Subtype of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Driven by the MYC-Alarmin Axis. Blood Cancer Discov. 2024;5(4):276-297.

Vringer E, Heilig R, Riley JS, Black A, Cloix C, Skalka G, Montes-Gómez AE, Aguado A, Lilla S, Walczak H, Gyrd-Hansen M, Murphy DJ, Huang DT, Zanivan S, Tait SW. Mitochondrial outer membrane integrity regulates a ubiquitin-dependent and NF-κB-mediated inflammatory response. EMBO J. 2024.

2023

Chrisochoidou Y, Roy R, Farahmand P, Gonzalez G, Doig J, Krasny L, Rimmer EF, Willis AE, MacFarlane M, Huang PH, Carragher NO, Munro AF, Murphy DJ, Veselkov K, Seckl MJ, Moffatt MF, Cookson WOC, Pardo OE. Crosstalk with lung fibroblasts shapes the growth and therapeutic response of mesothelioma cells. Cell Death Dis. 2023;14(11):725.

Dye I, Laing S, Garner I, Mirza HB, Iyer N, Brady N, Spiliopoulou P, Spear S, Robinson J, Fiorentino F, Fuchter MJ, Murphy DJ, McNeish IA, Brown R. cMYC-mediated immune repression is reversed by inhibition of H3K9/H3K27 methylation maintenance. bioRxiv. 2023:2023.2010.2018.562888.

Farahmand P, Gyuraszova K, Rooney C, Raffo-Iraolagoitia XL, Jayasekera G, Hedley A, Johnson E, Chernova T, Malviya G, Hall H, Monteverde T, Blyth K, Duffin R, Carlin LM, Lewis D, Le Quesne J, MacFarlane M, Murphy DJ. Asbestos accelerates disease onset in a genetic model of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Frontiers in Toxicology. 2023;5.

Laing S, Kruspig B, Shaw R, Officer-Jones L, Edwards S, McKinven D, Hsieh Y-C, Powley I, Brady N, Pennie R, Kwan R, Lima A, Myrta S, Periyasamy M, Dye IC, Nixon C, Clark G, Junttila MR, Maddalo D, Miller C, Ali S, Fuchter MJ, Nickles D, Kirschner K, Brown RB, Quesne JL, Strathdee D, Coffelt SB, Roberts E, Murphy DJ. ERBB signalling contributes to immune evasion in KRAS-driven lung adenocarcinoma. bioRxiv. 2023;Volume:2023.2007.2024.550274.

Raffo-Iraolagoitia XL, McFarlane AJ, Kruspig B, Fercoq F, Secklehner J, Donatis MD, Mackey JBG, Wiesheu R, Laing S, Hsieh Y-C, Shaw R, Corbyn R, Nixon C, Miller C, Kirschner K, Bain CC, Daniel J. Murphy, Seth B. Coffelt, Carlin LM. γδ T cells impair airway macrophage differentiation in lung adenocarcinoma. bioRxiv. 2023:2023.2009.2014.557344.

Villar VH, Allega MF, Deshmukh R, Ackermann T, Nakasone MA, Vande Voorde J, Drake TM, Oetjen J, Bloom A, Nixon C, Müller M, May S, Tan EH, Vereecke L, Jans M, Blancke G, Murphy DJ, Huang DT, Lewis DY, Bird TG, Sansom OJ, Blyth K, Sumpton D, Tardito S. Hepatic glutamine synthetase controls N5-methylglutamine in homeostasis and cancer. Nature Chemical Biology. 2023;19:292-300.

Vincelette ND, Yu X, Kuykendall AT, Moon J, Su S, Cheng C-H, Sammut R, Razabdouski TN, Nguyen HV, Eksioglu EA, Chan O, Ali NA, Patel PC, Lee DH, Nakanishi S, Ferreira RB, Mo Q, Cory S, Lawrence HR, Zhang L, Murphy DJ, Komrokji RS, Lee D, Kaufmann SH, Cleveland JL, Yun S. A Novel Subtype of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Driven by a MYC-Alarmin Axis. bioRxiv. 2023:2023.2009.2025.559138.

Whyte D, Skalka G, Walsh P, Wilczynska A, Paul NR, Mitchell C, Nixon C, Clarke W, Bushell M, Morton JP, Murphy DJ, Muthalagu N. NUAK1 governs centrosome replication in pancreatic cancer via MYPT1/PP1β and GSK3β-dependent regulation of PLK4. Mol Oncol. 2023; 17:1212-1227

Vitale I, Pietrocola F, Guilbaud E, Aaronson SA, Abrams JM, Adam D, Agostini M, Agostinis P, Alnemri ES, Altucci L, et al. Apoptotic cell death in disease-Current understanding of the NCCD 2023. Cell Death Differ. 2023; 30:1097–1154

2022

Blomme A, Peter C, Mui E, Rodriguez Blanco G, An N, Mason LM, Jamieson LE, McGregor GH, Lilla S, Ntala C, Patel R, Thiry M, Kung SHY, Leclercq M, Ford CA, Rushworth LK, McGarry DJ, Mason S, Repiscak P, Nixon C, Salji MJ, Markert E, MacKay GM, Kamphorst JJ, Graham D, Faulds K, Fazli L, Gleave ME, Avezov E, Edwards J, Yin H, Sumpton D, Blyth K, Close P, Murphy DJ, Zanivan S, Leung HY. THEM6-mediated reprogramming of lipid metabolism supports treatment resistance in prostate cancer. EMBO Molecular Medicine. 2022;14:e14764

Yanchus C, Drucker KL, Kollmeyer TM, Tsai R, Winick-Ng W, Liang M, Malik A, Pawling J, De Lorenzo SB, Ali A, Decker PA, Kosel ML, Panda A, Al-Zahrani KN, Jiang L, Browning JWL, Lowden C, Geuenich M, Hernandez JJ, Gosio JT, Ahmed M, Loganathan SK, Berman J, Trcka D, Michealraj KA, Fortin J, Carson B, Hollingsworth EW, Jacinto S, Mazrooei P, Zhou L, Elia A, Lupien M, He HH, Murphy DJ, Wang L, Abyzov A, Dennis JW, Maass PG, Campbell K, Wilson MD, Lachance DH, Wrensch M, Wiencke J, Mak T, Pennacchio LA, Dickel DE, Visel A, Wrana J, Taylor MD, Zadeh G, Dirks P, Eckel-Passow JE, Attisano L, Pombo A, Ida CM, Kvon EZ, Jenkins RB, Schramek D. A noncoding single-nucleotide polymorphism at 8q24 drives IDH1-mutant glioma formation. Science. 2022;378:68-78.

2021

Grosso S, Marini A, Gyuraszova K, Voorde JV, Sfakianos A, Garland GD, Tenor AR, Mordue R, Chernova T, Morone N, Sereno M, Smith CP, Officer L, Farahmand P, Rooney C, Sumpton D, Das M, Teodósio A, Ficken C, Martin MG, Spriggs RV, Sun XM, Bushell M, Sansom OJ, Murphy D, MacFarlane M, Le Quesne JPC, Willis AE. The pathogenesis of mesothelioma is driven by a dysregulated translatome. Nat Commun. 2021;12:4920.

Mackey JBG, McFarlane AJ, Jamieson T, Jackstadt R, Raffo-Iraolagoitia XL, Secklehner J, Cortes-Lavaud X, Fercoq F, Clarke W, Hedley A, Gilroy K, Lilla S, Vuononvirta J, Graham GJ, De Filippo K, Murphy DJ, Steele CW, Norman JC, Bird TG, Mann DA, Morton JP, Zanivan S, Sansom OJ, Carlin LM. Maturation, developmental site, and pathology dictate murine neutrophil function. bioRxiv. 2021.

Yun S, Vincelette ND, Yu X, Watson GW, Fernandez MR, Yang C, Hitosugi T, Cheng CH, Freischel AR, Zhang L, Li W, Hou H, Schaub FX, Vedder AR, Cen L, McGraw KL, Moon J, Murphy DJ, Ballabio A, Kaufmann SH, Berglund AE, Cleveland JL. TFEB links MYC signaling to epigenetic control of myeloid differentiation and acute myeloid leukemia. Blood Cancer Discov. 2021;2:162-185.

2020

Muthalagu N, Monteverde T, Raffo-Iraolagoitia X, Wiesheu R, Whyte D, Hedley A, Laing S, Kruspig B, Upstill-Goddard R, Shaw R, Neidler S, Rink C, Karim SA, Gyuraszova K, Nixon C, Clark W, Biankin AV, Carlin LM, Coffelt SB, Sansom OJ, Morton JP, Murphy DJ. Repression of the Type I Interferon pathway underlies MYC & KRAS-dependent evasion of NK & B cells in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma. Cancer discovery. 2020; 10:872-887

Rodrigues FS, Miranda VS, Carneiro-Lobo TC, Scalabrini LC, Kruspig B, Levantini E, Murphy DJ, Bassères DS. IKKβ Kinase Promotes Stemness, Migration, and Invasion in KRAS-Driven Lung Adenocarcinoma Cells. Int J Mol Sci. 2020;21(16): 5806

Yun S, Vincelette ND, Yu X, Watson GW, Fernandez MR, Yang C, Hitosugi T, Cheng C-H, Freischel AR, Zhang L, Li W, Hou H, Schaub FX, Vedder AR, Cen L, McGraw KL, Moon J, Murphy DJ, Ballabio A, Kaufmann SH, Berglund AE, Cleveland JL. TFEB links MYC signaling to epigenetic control of myeloid differentiation and acute myeloid leukemia. Blood Cancer Discovery. 2020; 2:162–85

2019

Bott AJ, Shen J, Tonelli C, Zhan L, Sivaram N, Jiang YP, Yu X, Bhatt V, Chiles E, Zhong H, Maimouni S, Dai W, Velasquez S, Pan JA, Muthalagu N, Morton J, Anthony TG, Feng H, Lamers WH, Murphy DJ, Guo JY, Jin J, Crawford HC, Zhang L, White E, Lin RZ, Su X, Tuveson DA, Zong WX. Glutamine Anabolism Plays a Critical Role in Pancreatic Cancer by Coupling Carbon and Nitrogen Metabolism. Cell reports. 2019;29:1287-1298.e1286

Neidler S, Kruspig B, Hewit K, Monteverde T, Gyuraszova K, Braun A, Clark W, James D, Hedley A, Nieswandt B, Shanks E, Dick C, Murphy DJ. Identification of a Clinically Relevant Signature for Early Progression in KRAS-Driven Lung Adenocarcinoma. Cancers 2019; 11: 600.

Scopelliti A, Bauer C, Yu Y, Zhang T, Kruspig B, Murphy DJ, Vidal M, Maddocks ODK, Cordero JB. A Neuronal Relay Mediates a Nutrient Responsive Gut/Fat Body Axis Regulating Energy Homeostasis in Adult Drosophila. Cell Metab 2019. 29: 269-284

2018

Kruspig B, Monteverde T, Neidler S, Hock A, Kerr E, Nixon C, Clark W, Hedley A, Laing S, Coffelt SB, Le Quesne J, Dick C, Vousden K, Martins CP, Murphy DJ. The ERBB network facilitates KRAS-driven lung tumorigenesis. Sci Transl Med 2018; 10: eaao2565

Monteverde T, Tait-Mulder J, Hedley A, Knight JR, Sansom OJ, Murphy DJ. Calcium signalling links MYC to NUAK1. Oncogene 2018; 37: 982-92

Port J, Muthalagu N, Raja M, Ceteci F, Monteverde T, Kruspig B, Hedley A, Kalna G, Lilla S, Neilson L, Brucoli M, Gyuraszova K, Tait-Mulder J, Mezna M, Svambaryte S, et al. Colorectal Tumors Require NUAK1 for Protection from Oxidative Stress. Cancer Discov 2018; 8: 632-47.

Blyth KG, Murphy DJ. Progress and challenges in Mesothelioma: From bench to bedside. Respir Med 2018; 134: 31-41.

Muthalagu N, Murphy DJ. Is oxidative stress MYC’s Achilles heel? Cell Death Differ 2018; 25: 1189-90.

2017

Farrell AS, Joly MM, Allen-Petersen BL, Worth PJ, Lanciault C, Sauer D, Link J, Pelz C, Heiser LM, Morton JP, Muthalagu N, Hoffman MT, Manning SL, Pratt ED, Kendsersky ND, Egbukichi N, Amery TS, Thoma MC, Jenny ZP, Rhim AD et al. MYC regulates ductal-neuroendocrine lineage plasticity in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma associated with poor outcome and chemoresistance. Nat Commun 2017; 8: 1728

Hock AK, Cheung EC, Humpton TJ, Monteverde T, Paulus-Hock V, Lee P, McGhee E, Scopelliti A, Murphy DJ, Strathdee D, Blyth K, Vousden KH Development of an inducible mouse model of iRFP713 to track recombinase activity and tumour development in vivo. Sci Rep. 2017; 7: 1837

Iltzsche F, Simon K, Stopp S, Pattschull G, Francke S, Wolter P, Hauser S, Murphy DJ, Garcia P, Rosenwald A, Gaubatz S. An important role for Myb-MuvB and its target gene KIF23 in a mouse model of lung adenocarcinoma. Oncogene 2017; 36: 110-21

Sarosiek KA, Fraser C, Muthalagu N, Bhola PD, Chang W, McBrayer SK, Cantlon A, Fisch S, Golomb-Mello G, Ryan JA, Deng J, Jian B, Corbett C, Goldenberg M, Madsen JR, Liao R, Walsh D, Sedivy J, Murphy DJ, Carrasco DR et al. Developmental Regulation of Mitochondrial Apoptosis by c-Myc Governs Age- and Tissue-Specific Sensitivity to Cancer Therapeutics. Cancer Cell 2017; 31: 142-56

Walton JB, Farquharson M, Mason S, Port J, Kruspig B, Dowson S, Stevenson D, Murphy D, Matzuk M, Kim J, Coffelt S, Blyth K, McNeish IA. CRISPR/Cas9-derived models of ovarian high grade serous carcinoma targeting Brca1, Pten and Nf1, and correlation with platinum sensitivity. Sci Rep 2017; 7: 16827

Murphy DJ, Blyth KG. Predicting lung cancer recurrence from circulating tumour DNA. Commentary on ‘Phylogenetic ctDNA analysis depicts early-stage lung cancer evolution. Cell Death Differ 2017; 24: 1473-4

Port J, Murphy DJ Mesothelioma: Identical Routes to Malignancy from Asbestos and Carbon Nanotubes. Curr Biol. 2017; 27: R1173-R1176

Group Leader

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Lab Members

Research Scientist

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Pooyeh Farahmand*

Information about this team member’s research interests, experience, and background will be added soon. Please check back for updates.

Research Scientist

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Sarah Laing

I am a post-doctoral researcher in Daniel Murphys lab. My research interests lie in the fundamental mechanisms of lung cancer disease initiation, progression, and evolution. My work to date has focused on using genetically engineered mouse models of non-small cell lung cancer to recapitulate human disease and to understand the impact of specific oncogenic pathways on progression to aggressive disease and mechanisms of resistance to current standard of care therapy. I received my undergraduate and MRes degrees from the University of Glasgow, during which I completed an internship the lab of Nick Hastie at University of Edinburgh for one year. I also received my PhD from the University of Glasgow, in Daniels lab, during which time I developed a novel GEMM of NSCLC. When I am not in the lab, I love running, hill walking, reading and spending time with friends and family.

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Research Scientist

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Mahnoor Mahmood*

Information about this team member’s research interests, experience, and background will be added soon. Please check back for updates.

Research Associate

Luis Pardo Fenandez

I am a biochemist and neurobiologist with a broad interest in understanding cell communication during tissue homeostasis and disease. My research career has evolved from studying astrocyte plasticity in brain injury during my PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, to investigating demyelination in multiple sclerosis at the University of Glasgow, and more recently to cancer biology at the CRUK Scotland Institute. There, I combined cell biology, mouse models, and multiomics approaches to investigate how mRNA translational control regulates oncogene-induced senescence and tumour initiation. Building on this work, I am establishing an independent research programme focused on identifying senescence signatures in early-stage disease that predict tumour progression, with the long-term goal of improving cancer diagnosis and patient stratification.

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Research Scientist

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Shahnawaz Ali*

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Scientific Officers

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Nicola Brady*

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Scientific Officers

Jennifer Doig*

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Scientific Officers

Ulla-Maja Bailey*

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Graduate Students

Danielle McKinven*

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Graduate Students

Dominika Lubawska*

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Graduate Students

Xinya Hong

I’m a third-year PhD student at the University of Glasgow and a clinical radiologist specializing in ultrasound in China. With nine years of experience in my field, I have a solid background in medical imaging. I completed my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Medicine, focusing on oncology, at Fujian Medical University.

Currently, I’m part of the Oncogene Induced Vulnerabilities Lab (Murphy Lab/M10), where I investigate the timing and origin of effusion emergence in genetically engineered mouse models of mesothelioma. My research also focuses on identifying and functionally validating genes associated with effusion development.

Outside of my studies, I enjoy traveling, listening to music, and spending quality time with my family.

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