Dr Amanda Swain

We are studying the molecular and cellular events that lead to the formation of organs such as the prostate, gonad and adrenal glands and how these events contribute to tumour formation and progression.

Prostate development and cancer are dependent on the action of sexual hormones and our studies focus on how steroid producing cells of the gonad and adrenal gland arise and function, and how male specific steroids and other pathways regulate the development of the prostate and contribute to prostate cancer.

Dr Amanda Swain is a Team Leader in the Division of Cancer Biology. She graduated in Chemistry at the Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina, and received her PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Biology for her studies on the mechanism of oncogene transduction by retroviruses in the laboratory of John Coffin at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, USA.

Her postdoctoral training, undertaken in the laboratory of Robin Lovell-Badge at the Medical Research Council (MRC) National Institute of Medical Research in London, focused on the role of the X-linked hormone receptor DAX-1 in mammalian sex determination and gonad development.

In 1998, Dr Swain established her own research team at The Institute of Cancer Research, and was promoted to Team Leader in 2006. She obtained an MRC Career Development Award in 1998 to study the development of steroid producing cells during embryogenesis.

In 2001, she became part of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) South of England Prostate Cancer Collaborative and received Career Development funding from the NCRI to establish a programme studying the pathways involved in prostate development and their role in prostate cancer. Additionally, she has secured grant funding from the MRC, Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK) to study various aspects of the development of the prostate, gonad and adrenal glands and the role of genetic pathways in prostate cancer.