Home| Senior Lecturer |
Contact details:
| Tel: | +44 20 7882 2279 |
| Fax: | +44 20 7882 2183 |
| Email: | p.d.allen@qmul.ac.uk |
| Address: | Centre for Paediatrics, |
Biography
I have been employed at the London Hospital Medical College (LHMC), Whitechapel since February 1989. Initially, this was as a Research Assistant on the RA1B scales but in October 1993 I was transferred to an RA1A position. In October 1995, this was made into a tenured Post Doctoral position within the LHMC. I was appointed to lecturer in November 1998 and senior lecturer in October 2003. I have been interested in apoptosis, the cell cycle and mitotic catastrophe in the context of leukaemia and leukaemia therapies. Since writing our first review on apoptosis in 1993, we have seen a burgeoning of this subject into mainstream Haematology/Oncology. I have developed skills in flow cytometry and cell sorting and with the aid of Prof Macey this has progressed to being an invited speaker, book contributor and formal teacher in this technology.
In 1988 I began work on the Bone Marrow Transplant Team in the Department of Chemical Immunology at The Westminster Hospital under Prof Jack Hobbs but moved to LHMC in 1989
I began work in London in 1983 at the CRC Laboratories, Medical Oncology, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School under Prof Kenneth Bagshawe who was Scientific Director of the CRC at the time. I was involved in cancer diagnostic assays for the Supra Regional Assay Service based at Charing Cross and in assay development. I then moved into monoclonal antibody production which was part of a larger team involved in drug development, drug targeting, radio-imaging and disease monitoring.
Appointed to Associate Dean Postgraduate Studies (Research Degrees) and ICMS Graduate Tutor in January 2007.
Research Activity
The overall aim of our work is studying the role of apoptosis and other forms of cell death in leukaemogenesis and drug resistance.
At the time of writing, the work is focusing on the G2M checkpoint and how the molecular components of the G2M checkpoint may directly induce apoptosis. We are examining the role of therapeutic agents that act as topo-isomerase II inhibitors. The questions under scrutiny following genotoxic insult are: what is the outcome of drug-induced premature senescence; how important is mitotic catastrophe, does Cdk1 play a role in cell cycle control AND apoptosis; what is the importance of its phosphorylation status; does phosphorylation affect the spatial compartmentalisation of Cdk1 and does sequestration failure induce mitotic catastrophe. More recently we have looked at drug effects on kinesin proteins and their role in directing the newly discovered passenger proteins (e.g.Aurora B kinase) at mitosis. These investigations will prove to be important in drug resistance and drug scheduling in the light of the next generation of small molecule drugs i.e. kinesin inhibitors, Aurora kinase inhibitors and Cdk1 inhibitors, which are currently in phase I and phase II clinical trials.
Key Publications
• NJ Ketley, PD Allen, SM Kelsey and AC Newland. Mechanisms of resistance to apoptosis in human AML blasts: the role of differentation-induced perturbations of cell cycle checkpoints. Leukemia. 2000; 14 :620-628
• Y Yin, PD Allen, L Jia, MG Macey, SM Kelsey and AC Newland. Constitutive levels of cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity determine sensitivity of human multidrug resistant leukemia cell lines to growth inhibition and apoptosis by forskolin and tumour necrosis factor alpha. Br. J. Haemat. 2000; 108 :565-573.
• PD Allen and AC Newland. Electrophoretic DNA Analysis for the Detection of Apoptosis. Molecular Biotechnology, 1998; 9: 247-251.
• Y-L WU, X-R Jiang, DM Lillington, PD Allen, AC Newland and SM Kelsey. 1,25 Dihydroxyvitamin D3 protects human leukemic cells from tumour necrosis factor-induced apoptosis via inactivation of cytosolic phospholipase A3. Cancer Research, 1998; 58: 633-640.
• L Jia, PD All, MG Macey, MF Grahn, AC Newland and SM Kelsey. Mitochondrial electron transport chain but not ATP synthesis is required for drug induced apoptosis in human leukaemic cells; a possible novel mechanism of regulating drug resistance. Br J. Haemat. 1997; 98 :686-698.
• L Jia, RR Dourmashkin, PD Allen, AB Gray, AC Newland and SM Kelsey. Inhibition of autophagy abrogates tumour necrosis factor alpha induced apoptosis in human T-lymphoblastic leukeamic cells. 1997. Br. J. Haemat. 98 : 673-685.
• NJ Ketley, PD Allen, SM Kelsey and AC Newland. Modulation of idarubicin induced apoptosis in human AML blasts by all-trans retinoic acid, 1,25(OH) 2 vitamin D3 and granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor. Blood, 1997; 90: 4578-4587.
• PD Allen, DH Johnston, MG Macey, NS Williams and AC Newland. Colorectal Cell Line Suppression of Lymphokine Activated Killer Cell Generation is Reversed by Suramin. Anti Cancer Drugs 1995; 6:250-258.
• PD Allen, DH Johnston, MG Macey, NS Williams and AC Newland. Modulaton of CD4 by Suramin. Clin. Exp. Immunol. 1993; 91 :141-146.
• SM Kelsey, PD Allen, K Razak, MG Macey and AC Newland. Induction of surface tumour necrosis factor (TNF) expression and possible facilitation of surface TNF release from human monocytic cells by GM-CSF or gamma interferon (IFN) in combination with 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3. Exp. Haematology, 1993; 21 , 864-869.
