Dr Janet Shipley

The current aims of the Sarcoma Molecular Biology Team are to identify therapeutic targets and/or molecular markers that will aid the treatment of patients with specific types of soft tissue sarcomas, as well as continuing a more minor interest in testicular germ cell tumours. Gene products relevant to sarcoma biology are identified through analyses of data from various screening approaches, including gene expression profiling, high-throughput sequencing and analysis of genomic copy number changes. This work is supported through use of extensive, well-characterised tumour collections. The functional relevance of selected gene products in specific sarcomas is evaluated using in vitro and in vivo experimental models.

Previous investigations by the group have led to the identification of a number of genes involved in malignancies, notably genes rearranged by the specific chromosome translocations found in synovial sarcoma, chondrosarcoma, kidney carcinoma and a myeloproliferative disorder. Studies have also defined genetic changes associated with specific types of breast cancer lesions, and implicated RAS/MAPkinase signalling in the development of testicular germ cell tumours. Approaches to resolve diagnostic dilemmas for the differential diagnosis of small round cell tumours, synovial sarcoma, and tumours of germ cell origin were designed with an emphasis on analysis of formalin fixed paraffin embedded samples, which are the most widely available tumour resource.

Janet Shipley grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne, completed a BSc (Hons) in Biology at Southampton University and obtained a PhD in 1994 from the University of London.

She has worked in the DNA Repair and Cell Biology Group at the Paediatric Research Unit at Guy’s Hospital in London, the Genetics Division of Harvard at Children's Hospital in Boston, USA and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund UK (now the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute).

She moved to The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in 1992 to establish a laboratory characterising chromosomal rearrangements in tumours, and was awarded tenure in 1996 and a readership in 2003.

She has fostered links with clinicians and National and European organisations in order to address key clinical issues in specific types of soft tissue sarcomas and testicular cancers through increasing our understanding of their underlying molecular biology.

Janet was featured in a New Scientist article entitled 'Finding the love of your life in a cancer lab'