Ruth Barber Email & Phone Number

Leicester, Gb

Leicester, United Kingdom

Leicester, United Kingdom

The Leicester Drug Discovery and Diagnostics Centre (LD3) aims to translate the high quality basic biomedical research conducted at the University of Leicester into medicines, therapies and diagnostic tests that will have ‘real world’ benefit for patients. We ensure that our milestone driven projects focus on working with our industrial and academic partners to deliver novel medicines and diagnostics. In my role as the Translational Research Manager for the Leicester Drug Discovery and Diagnostics Centre (LD3) I head a fabulous team of four Research Associates supporting a portfolio of between 10-12 projects covering a the areas of research excellence from the University of Leicester including cardiovascular medicine, respiratory disease, infectious diseases, neurodegenerative disorders and oncology, with state-of-the-art laboratories and dedicated equipment. I provide project management expertise to ensure the rapid progression of our projects through drug discovery milestones towards translational endpoints. Working closely with the Research and Enterprise Division and project Principles Investigators I am also involved with the partnering of projects with commercial collaborators. It is also my responsibility to ensure project funding we currently receive support from the University of Leicester core funds, an MRC Confidence in Concept Award, a Domainex STAR award and a GSK Developmental Partnership with Academia Award. We are constantly seeking to match the pharmaceutical and biotech industries needs with the outstanding expertise of our academics.

After joining Centre for Translational Therapeutics (CTT) in 2011 I have been working on two projects developing novel therapies to treat haematological malignancies. The first project with Dr Simon Wagner (November 2011 - October 2013) was focused on elucidating the survival pathways in BCL6 dependent lymphomas that become important when BCL6 is repressed. The identification of such pathways provides the basis for rational combination therapies for the treatment of aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphomas such as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. A number of small molecule inhibitors, from a synthetic lethal library screen, were identified that target either NF-κB and JAK-STAT signalling. Data from cells lines and a mouse xenograft model of BCL6 dependent lymphoma suggest that the dual targeting of BCL6 and JAK family members may be of therapeutic value in the treatment of B-cell lymphomas. The second project with Prof Martin Dyer (November 2013 - to present) aims to develop novel antibody drug conjugates (ADC) to target a cell surface receptor that is aberrantly expressed in number of haematological malignancies, including B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, acute myeloid leukaemia and some Hodgkin lymphomas. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been raised to these receptors which are target specific and rapidly internalised, but show low levels of cellular toxicity. These antibodies are therefore ideal candidates for conjugating to cytoxic therapeutic agents to elicit targeted killing of cancer cells.

After receiving my PhD in 2002 I remained in the Department of Genetics working as a Research Associate (with Prof Yuri Dubrova) and later as an independent Research Fellow working on number of interlinked protects assessing the impact of mutagen exposure, primary radiation exposure, on epigenetic alterations (changes in methylation and miRNA profiles) on transgenerational genomic instability.

My PhD project, with Prof Yuri Dubrova, focused on determining the mechanisms of radiation-induced DNA instability at expanded simple tandem repeat (EDTR) loci in the mouse germline. Studies involved the assessing the effect of mutagen exposure on recombination rates and the investigation of the role of DNA repair in induced instability.The highlight of my PhD work was the paradigm shifting study that demonstrated that radiation exposure could result in elevated DNA mutation rates in not only exposed individuals but also in their non-exposed offspring (termed transgenerational instability).My PhD work resulted in three high profile publications and a large amount of public interest in the work describing transgenerational instability, including an article in New Scientist.

During this time I worked on a number of projects assign the impact of genetic susceptibility on common human disorders including psoriasis (with Prof Richard Trembath and cardiovascular disease (with Prof Nelish Samani). Followed by a short period working with Prof. Yuri Dubrova assessing the impact of recombination on mutagen induced DNA instability before registering as a PhD student.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Radiation Biology/Radiobiology

Biology Bsc Hons, Biology, General, 2.1

Activities and Societies: Community Action - Riding for the Disabled, Youth Group Activities Bangor University Guides & Scouts (BUGS)