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Staff Profiles

Dr James Brown

B.App.Sc., PhD

Contact Details

Lecturer (Fixed Term)
Discipline of Surgery
School of Medicine
Lambe Institute for Translationa
National University of Ireland G

T: Ext. 3041
E: james.brown@nuigalway.ie
 
researcher

Biography

I have a strong research record with over half of my publications as senior/corresponding author. I was awarded the prestigious European Association for Cancer Research young scientist award (2015) by the Irish association for Cancer Research (IACR), an award for an outstanding young individual based scientific track record and additionally on my recent high impact publication in Scientific Reports (Gao et al, 2014), developing a novel compound that preferentially targets breast cancer. I am a founding member of the IACR Junior Council and contribute to F1000 Faculty Reviews as an associate faculty member. I am a reviewer for >10 journals and have presented orally at several conferences. I have been an expert evaluator reviewer for European Union grants (European COoperation in Science and Technology, COST).

I have co-supervised 1 PhD student and am currently supervising another 2 PhD students and 1 MD student (all of whom have published) and sit on the internal review panel for another 2 PhD students. Furthermore, my students have won a number of awards, grants and are regularly selected for oral presentations at national and international conferences.

I am currently managing a Cancer Trials Ireland (CTI) sponsored clinical trail (Led by Professor Kerin) evaluating a specific breast cancer related, blood borne biomarker signature (and am an CTI member).

Research Interests

Building on my work in breast cancer I joined Professor Michael Kerin’s research group (Discipline of Surgery, Galway University Hospital/NUIG) as a National Breast Cancer Research Institute (NBCRI) funded senior postdoctoral researcher. My primary research involves discovery and characterization of novel circulating biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. This led to an oral presentation at the Circulating Biomarkers Conference (2014, Dundee).

Research Projects

  Project Start Date End Date
Pre-clinical evaluation of rationally designed small-molecule Histone Aceytyl-transferase inhibitors 07-NOV-14 06-AUG-15

Peer Reviewed Journals

  Year Publication
(2010) 'DNA damage induces Chk1-dependent threonine-160 phosphorylation and activation of Cdk2'
Bourke, E.,Brown, J. A.,Takeda, S.,Hochegger, H.,Morrison, C. G. (2010) 'DNA damage induces Chk1-dependent threonine-160 phosphorylation and activation of Cdk2'. Oncogene, 29 (44):616-24 [Details]
(2010) 'MCPH1/BRIT1 limits ionizing radiation-induced centrosome amplification'
Brown, J. A.,Bourke, E.,Liptrot, C.,Dockery, P.,Morrison, C. G. (2010) 'MCPH1/BRIT1 limits ionizing radiation-induced centrosome amplification'. Oncogene, 29 (4040):5537-44 [Details]
(2011) 'A novel role for hSMG-1 in stress granule formation'
Brown, J. A.,Roberts, T. L.,Richards, R.,Woods, R.,Birrell, G.,Lim, Y. C.,Ohno, S.,Yamashita, A.,Abraham, R. T.,Gueven, N.,Lavin, M. F. (2011) 'A novel role for hSMG-1 in stress granule formation'. Mol Cell Biol, 31 (2222):4417-29 [Details]
(2012) 'Co-mutation of histone H2AX S139A with Y142A rescues Y142A-induced ionising radiation sensitivity'
Brown, J. A.,Eykelenboom, J. K.,Lowndes, N. F. (2012) 'Co-mutation of histone H2AX S139A with Y142A rescues Y142A-induced ionising radiation sensitivity'. FEBS Open Bio, 2 :313-7 [Details]
(2013) 'Multiple facets of the DNA damage response contribute to the radioresistance of mouse mesenchymal stromal cell lines'
Sugrue, T.,Brown, J. A.,Lowndes, N. F.,Ceredig, R. (2013) 'Multiple facets of the DNA damage response contribute to the radioresistance of mouse mesenchymal stromal cell lines'. Stem Cells, 31 (11):137-45 [Details]
(2013) 'Smg1 haploinsufficiency predisposes to tumor formation and inflammation'
Roberts, T. L.,Ho, U.,Luff, J.,Lee, C. S.,Apte, S. H.,MacDonald, K. P.,Raggat, L. J.,Pettit, A. R.,Morrow, C. A.,Waters, M. J.,Chen, P.,Woods, R. G.,Thomas, G. P.,St Pierre, L.,Farah, C. S.,Clarke, R. A.,Brown, J. A.,Lavin, M. F. (2013) 'Smg1 haploinsufficiency predisposes to tumor formation and inflammation'. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 110 (44) [Details]
(2014) 'Rational design and validation of a Tip60 histone acetyltransferase inhibitor'
Gao, C.,Bourke, E.,Scobie, M.,Famme, M. A.,Koolmeister, T.,Helleday, T.,Eriksson, L. A.,Lowndes, N. F.,Brown, J. A. (2014) 'Rational design and validation of a Tip60 histone acetyltransferase inhibitor'. Sci Rep, 4 [Details]
(2014) 'Primary cilium-associated genes mediate bone marrow stromal cell response to hypoxia'
Brown, J. A.,Santra, T.,Owens, P.,Morrison, A. M.,Barry, F. (2014) 'Primary cilium-associated genes mediate bone marrow stromal cell response to hypoxia'. Stem Cell Res, 13 (22):284-99 [Details]
(2015) 'ROCK activity and the Gβγ complex mediate chemotactic migration of mouse bone marrow-derived stromal cells'
Ryan CM, Brown JA, Bourke E, Prendergast ÁM, Kavanagh C, Liu Z, Owens P, Shaw G, Kolch W, O'Brien T, Barry FP (2015) 'ROCK activity and the Gβγ complex mediate chemotactic migration of mouse bone marrow-derived stromal cells'. Stem Cell Res Ther, 6(1) (136) [DOI] [Details]
(2015) 'Metastatic breast cancer: the potential of miRNA for diagnosis and treatment monitoring'
McGuire, A.,Brown, J. A.,Kerin, M. J. (2015) 'Metastatic breast cancer: the potential of miRNA for diagnosis and treatment monitoring'. Cancer Metastasis Rev, 34 (11):145-55 [Details]
(2015) 'Effects of Age on the Detection and Management of Breast Cancer'
Andrew McGuire, James A. L. Brown, Carmel Malone, Ray McLaughlin, Michael J. Kerin (2015) 'Effects of Age on the Detection and Management of Breast Cancer'. Cancers, 7 (2):908-929 [DOI] [Details]

Reviews

  Year Publication
(2013) F1000 Article recommendation: Primary cilia: the chemical antenna regulating human adipose-derived stem cell osteogenesis. Bodle et al.
Brown J.A.L., Barry F.P. (2013) F1000 Article recommendation: Primary cilia: the chemical antenna regulating human adipose-derived stem cell osteogenesis. Bodle et al. Reviews [Details]
(2014) F1000 Article recommendation: Surface topography regulates wnt signaling through control of primary cilia structure in mesenchymal stem cells.
Brown J.A.L., Barry F.P. (2014) F1000 Article recommendation: Surface topography regulates wnt signaling through control of primary cilia structure in mesenchymal stem cells. Reviews [Details]
(2014) F1000 Article recommendation: Primary cilia disassembly down- regulates mechanosensitive hedgehog signalling: a feedback mechanism controlling ADAMTS-5 expression in chondrocytes.
Brown J.A.L., Barry F.P. (2014) F1000 Article recommendation: Primary cilia disassembly down- regulates mechanosensitive hedgehog signalling: a feedback mechanism controlling ADAMTS-5 expression in chondrocytes. Reviews [Details]
(2014) F1000 Article recommendation: Interleukin-1β sequesters hypoxia inducible factor 2α to the primary cilium.
Brown J.A.L., Barry F.P. (2014) F1000 Article recommendation: Interleukin-1β sequesters hypoxia inducible factor 2α to the primary cilium. Reviews [Details]

Honours and Awards

  Year Title Awarding Body
2015 EACR Young Scientist award. Irish Association of Cancer Research.

Professional Associations

  Association Function From / To
Microscopy Society Ireland (MSI) Member 01-OCT-13 /
Irish Association of Cancer Research (IACR) Member 27-FEB-09 /
British Society for Cell Biology (BSCB) Member 01-NOV-15 /
Australian Society of Medical Research (ASMR) International member 01-JAN-05 /
F1000 Associate Faculty Member Article recommendation. 01-OCT-13 /

Committees

  Committee Function From / To
Irish Association of Cancer Research Junior Council Committee member 27-FEB-15 / 24-FEB-17

Teaching Interests


My teaching philosophy is: It is our responsibility as lecturers to give students the tools, abilities and confidence to learn using their own methods to suit their own needs. Our job is to ensure that this is done in an exciting, engaging, interactive and increasingly today, tech savvy way. The techniques we use need to be robust enough to cater to students of all abilities and yet flexible enough to be applied to any subject matter, group size and university level.

 

I am currently involved in active academic pedagogical research through my guest lecturing on the undergraduate biotechnology course. Here, I have developed, deployed and assessed new practical web-based bioinformatic modules, in each undergraduate year. This involves teaching practical research based uses of web-based tools to educate undergraduate students in key scientific community practices and processes, such as practical bioinformatic techniques, database use, oral and data presentation and scientific poster preparation.



My undergraduate teaching is in addition my current ongoing supervision and guidance of postgraduate students (Medical Doctorate degree).

Internal Collaborators

  Name Description of Collaboration
Dr Emer Bourke