Dr Claus Jørgensen

Cell Communication Team
The goal of the Cell Communication team is to understand aberrant signalling in cancer and how deregulated signalling in the tumour microenvironment affects tumour progression.

Normal tissue consists of multiple cell types, such as epithelial cells, fibroblasts, immune cells and cells of the vascular system. To ensure an optimal performance of individual tissues, specific cells constantly communicate through the exchange of signals in order to fine-tune their behaviour. Such cell signalling can also be described as reciprocal signalling and is an iterative process where two or more cell-types exchange signals in a consecutive manner. Reciprocal signalling can be initiated through direct contact and is fundamental to several processes such as antigen presentation, axon guidance, the establishment of epithelial polarity and maintenance of tissue boundaries. In addition, reciprocal signalling can also be regulated through release of growth factors, cytokines and hormones between closely situated cells.

Deregulated cell-communication is frequently observed between cancer cells and cells of the tumour stroma. During malignant transformation, tumour cells acquire mutations that alter their behaviour and how they interpret signals from neighbouring cells. In addition, communication with cells of the microenvironment is also perturbed, which together results in a decreased responsiveness towards chemo- and radio-therapeutics as well as increased metastatic behaviour. Understanding these changes and how they result in malignant behaviour can subsequently lead to the development of new therapeutics and biomarkers.

We are interested in the regulatory mechanisms underlying the homeostatic relationship between normal cells and how this goes awry in the tumourigenic process. Therefore, we aim to determine how individual cells respond to alterations in the extracellular environment in a multicellular setting and how alterations in the communication between cancerous cells and the neighbouring stroma cells influence the tumorigenic process.

To establish the specificities of signalling networks and how they impinge on specific cellular processes, we use approaches such as RNAi screening and quantitative mass spectrometry to systematically perturb and measure signalling on a global level. Through data-integrative approaches, we subsequently aim to develop models describing how signals are processed in a cell-specific manner, thereby aiming to identify nodes with cell-specific effects. Our long-term goal is to understand how such signals are processed to achieve cell specific phenotypes in a multicellular environment and how these signalling networks are deregulated in diseases such as cancer.

Dr Claus Jørgensen works in the emerging research area of network biology, using powerful computers and cutting-edge equipment to investigate and predict cellular processes that can become faulty and trigger disease. He is the Leader of the Cell Communication Team in the Division of Cell Biology based at The Institute of Cancer Research’s Chester Beatty Laboratories in London.

Understanding communication between cells is crucial, as many cancers and other diseases are caused by a breakdown in communications systems. Under Dr Jørgensen, the Cell Communication Team investigates how reciprocal signalling between different cells controls the cells’ behaviour. Cells communicate through a network of specialised proteins known as signalling molecules. Dr Jørgensen’s work involves measuring these molecules to assess how cells respond to environmental changes individually and when in a multi-cellular setting. Importantly, the team’s emphasis is on researching types of cell communication thought to play a role in disease development, and how communication with neighbouring cells differs between cancerous and normal cells.

“Normal cells do not invade surrounding tissue, whereas something has changed within cancer cells that allows them to spread through neighbouring tissue and into distant organs. When we begin to understand the mechanisms behind cell-to-cell communication, we can work out the molecular signals that trigger the invasive process,” Dr Jørgensen says. “By combining my interest and knowledge in cell communication with the ICR's outstanding track record in developing novel treatments for cancer patients our ultimate goal is to develop new and more effective treatments.”

Dr Jørgensen joined the ICR in 2010 after five years as a Post Doctoral Fellow at Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mt Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada. There he developed a technique that allows scientists to more accurately replicate what is happening in the body when neighbouring cells communicate. Previous techniques did not take into account that cells respond to the signals they receive and feedback to each other, like a conversation between people. By attaching labels to individual cells, a machine called a mass spectrometer can be used to determine the origin of signalling molecules produced, allowing scientists to examine two populations of cells at once and determine each cell type’s role in their complicated ”conversations”.

“I find this truly fascinating as it really shows how complex cell commutation is on a molecular level,” Dr Jørgensen says.

Dr Jørgensen received his Masters of Science from the University of Southern Denmark in 2003 and his PhD in 2005. He has already been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including a Fellowship from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Southern Denmark, a Danish National Health Care Research Counsel Scholarship, a fellowship from the Lundbeck Foundation and a Career Establishment Award from Cancer Research UK.

In the rare moments he is not engaged with science, Dr Jørgensen relaxes by reading a book, spending time with his family, watching comedy and travelling.