Nicola Curtin | |
---|---|
Born | 1954 (age 68–69) |
Alma mater | University of York, University of Manchester, University of Surrey |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Newcastle University |
Nicola Curtin is an English academic. She is Professor of Experimental Cancer Therapeutics at Newcastle University. [1] She is best known for being part of the Newcastle University team that developed Rubraca, a PARP inhibitor used as an anti-cancer agent addressing BRCA mutation, and for donating her share of the royalties to charity.
Curtin received her undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of York in 1975. She studied liver carcinogenesis and received her MSc from the University of Manchester in 1977 followed by her PhD from the University of Surrey in 1981. [1]
Curtin is a team leader at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research at Newcastle University. [1] She has been teaching and doing research at the university since 1982. Curtin's research is currently focused on DNA-damage response and has received 15 patents as of 2019. [1] She was one of the researchers behind the development of Rubraca, which has been approved for use by the National Health Service in cases of ovarian cancer. [2] Newcastle University sold the royalties for Rubraca for $31 million. [3]
Curtin's academic publications have been cited over 17,000 times, resulting in an h-index of 64 and an i10-index of 156. [4]
Curtin used the royalties she received from Rubraca (around £865,000) to establish the Curtin PARP (Passionate About Realising your Potential) Fund at the Community Foundation in Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, which is a non-profit organization that matches funds to different community causes. [3] [5] [6] [7] It is aimed at helping disadvantaged people gain access to education and employment opportunities. Curtin was inspired to create this fund by the realization that despite the years of hard work, the monetary success was largely due to luck. [2]
Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different cell types including epithelial cells, germ cells, and stromal cells. When these cells become abnormal, they have the ability to divide and form tumors. These cells can also invade or spread to other parts of the body. When this process begins, there may be no or only vague symptoms. Symptoms become more noticeable as the cancer progresses. These symptoms may include bloating, vaginal bleeding, pelvic pain, abdominal swelling, constipation, and loss of appetite, among others. Common areas to which the cancer may spread include the lining of the abdomen, lymph nodes, lungs, and liver.
The Institute of Cancer Research is a public research institute and a member institution of the University of London in London, United Kingdom, specialising in oncology. It was founded in 1909 as a research department of the Royal Marsden Hospital and joined the University of London in 2003. It has been responsible for a number of breakthrough discoveries, including that the basic cause of cancer is damage to DNA.
Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) is a family of proteins involved in a number of cellular processes such as DNA repair, genomic stability, and programmed cell death.
Cediranib is a potent inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor tyrosine kinases.
Poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase 1 (PARP-1) also known as NAD+ ADP-ribosyltransferase 1 or poly[ADP-ribose] synthase 1 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the PARP1 gene. It is the most abundant of the PARP family of enzymes, accounting for 90% of the NAD+ used by the family. PARP1 is mostly present in cell nucleus, but cytosolic fraction of this protein was also reported.
Olaparib, sold under the brand name Lynparza, is a medication for the maintenance treatment of BRCA-mutated advanced ovarian cancer in adults. It is a PARP inhibitor, inhibiting poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP), an enzyme involved in DNA repair. It acts against cancers in people with hereditary BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, which include some ovarian, breast, and prostate cancers.
PARP inhibitors are a group of pharmacological inhibitors of the enzyme poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP).
Iniparib was a drug candidate for cancer treatment. It was originally believed to act as an irreversible inhibitor of PARP1 and possibly other enzymes through covalent modification, but its effects against PARP were later disproven. It underwent clinical trials for treatment of some types of breast cancer, but was discontinued after disappointing phase III clinical trials.
Veliparib (ABT-888) is a potential anti-cancer drug acting as a PARP inhibitor. It kills cancer cells by blocking a protein called PARP, thereby preventing the repair of DNA or genetic damage in cancer cells and possibly making them more susceptible to anticancer treatments. Veliparib may make whole brain radiation treatment work more effectively against brain metastases from NSCLC. It has been shown to potentiate the effects of many chemotherapeutics, and as such has been part of many combination clinical trials.
Rucaparib, sold under the brand name Rubraca, is a PARP inhibitor used as an anti-cancer agent. Rucaparib is a first-in-class pharmaceutical drug targeting the DNA repair enzyme poly-ADP ribose polymerase-1 (PARP-1). It is taken by mouth.
Alan Ashworth, FRS is a British molecular biologist, noted for his work on genes involved in cancer susceptibility. He is currently the President of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco, a multidisciplinary research and clinical care organisation that is one of the largest cancer centres in the Western United States. He was previously CEO of the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London.
Talazoparib, sold under the brand name Talzenna, is an orally available poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor developed by Pfizer for the treatment of advanced breast cancer with germline BRCA mutations. Talazoparib is similar to the first in class PARP inhibitor, olaparib. It was approved in October 2018, in the United States and June 2019, in the European Union for germline BRCA-mutated, HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer.
Niraparib, sold under the brand name Zejula, is an anti-cancer medication used for the treatment of epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer. It is taken by mouth. It is a PARP inhibitor.
Alice Segers Whittemore is an American epidemiologist and biostatistician who studies the effects of genetics and lifestyle on cancer, after an earlier career as a pure mathematician studying group theory. She works as a professor of health research and policy and of biomedical data science at Stanford University, and has served as president of the International Biometric Society.
Elizabeth Ruth Plummer is a Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at Newcastle University and an oncologist specialising in treating patients with melanoma. Based in Newcastle, she directs the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre, set up by the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation to run early-stage clinical trials.v Plummer and the Newcastle team won a 2010 Translational Cancer Research Prize from Cancer Research UK for work using rucaparib to treat ovarian cancer. Plummer was elected as a fellow of the UK's Academy of Medical Sciences in 2018.
Susan M. Domchek is an oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania, Executive Director of the Basser Center for BRCA, the Basser Professor in Oncology at the Perelman School of Medicine, and Director of the Mariann and Robert MacDonald Cancer Risk Evaluation Program at Penn Medicine. She has authored more than 250 articles in scholarly journals and serves on a number of editorial review boards. In 2018, Domchek was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
HRDetect is a whole-genome sequencing (WGS)-based classifier designed to predict BRCA1 and BRCA2 deficiency based on six mutational signatures. Additionally, the classifier is able to identify similarities in mutational profiles of tumors to that of tumors with BRCA1 and BRCA2 defects, also known as BRCAness. This classifier can be applied to assess the implementation of PARP inhibitors in patients with BRCA1/BRCA2 deficiency. The final output is a probability of BRCA1/2 mutation.
Jung-Min Lee is a South Korean-American medical oncologist and physician-scientist focused on the early clinical drug development and translational studies of targeted agents in BRCA mutation-associated breast or ovarian cancer, high-grade epithelial ovarian cancer, and triple-negative breast cancer. She is a NIH Lasker Clinical Research Scholar and principal investigator in the Women's Malignancies Branch at the National Cancer Institute.
Julia Lesley Wilson is a British scientist who serves as associate director at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Her research career investigates transplant rejection, cancer and inflammation. She previously worked at the World Cancer Research Fund and Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
Csaba Szabo, a physician and pharmacologist, is the Head of the Pharmacology Section of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. The Public Library of Science Magazine, PLOS Biology, recognized Szabo in 2019 as one of the most cited researchers in the world.
I don't think any scientist is driven by monetary considerations. What we're driven by, largely, is finding things out. And the fact that we've hit gold with this drug is largely down to luck. There's been a lot of hard work by a lot of people, but that's true of many projects that don't reach fruition in the same way. I could easily have been one of these people.