SHIELDS LAB
@KCL
ABOUT US
Current immunotherapy approaches show great promise but are effective in just a few cancer types. Therefore, a clear knowledge deficit exists in our understanding of anti-tumour immunity and the suppressive networks at play during the different stages of malignant transition.
Surveillance by the immune system has been implicated as a major barrier to the progression of early cancers, however, tumours have developed strategies to interfere with almost every step necessary for an effective anti-tumour immune response. "Normal” cells termed the stroma in surrounding tissue - including fibroblasts, endothelial cells, pericytes and immune cells – form a tumour microenvironment that co-evolves with cancer from its earliest stages to shape progression, and mounting evidence indicates that components of the stroma support immune suppression to promote carcinogenesis via mechanisms that remain poorly understood.
The Shields Lab take a multidisciplinary approach, integrating experimental cancer models, complex in vitro and in silico systems, high throughput genomics and bioinformatics to understand how the tumour stroma regulates immune activity from early stages of disease to promote carcinogenesis.