Dr Marie Boyd
Reader
Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
Personal statement
Dr Marie Boyd joined SIPBS from the CRUK Beatson Laboratories in July 2009 as a SULSA Reader in Translational Biology. Dr Boyd was awarded a CRUK Senior Cancer Research Fellowship in 2005 to investigate targeted radionuclide therapy for cancer. Targeted radionuclide therapy utilised radiation like a drug, that is molecules which are accrued specifically in tumours have a radioactive molecule attached, and once the radiopharmaceutical is injected into the body and it gets concentrated only in tumour cells. This results in irradiation specifically to tumour cells sparing normal tissues and thus reduction of toxic side effects. Our research group focuses on expansion of this form of radiotherapy to more tumour types by investigation and development of novel radiopharmaceuticals and targets as well as by adopting gene therapy techniques.
The group also investigates the basic biology of cellular response to radiotherapy and have a large area of research into combining radiotherapy with novel and existing drugs and interrogation of cell signaling and mechanisms using traditional and “Omics” based approaches. The Boyd group have already translated some therapeutic schemes into clinical trial and other promising schemes based upon repurposing of existing drugs, are underway with Industrial partners including AstraZeneca.
Since the transfer to Strathclyde, the group has established several cross-disciplinary links within the TIC themes in areas of advanced Sciences and Technologies, Bionanotechnology, and Health Technologies at Strathclyde. These collaborations are formed around the need to establish multidisciplinary approaches to the development of cancer therapy. Our work fosters the marriage of cancer biology and radiobiology with platform technologies such as Laser Plasma Wakefield Accelerators, microfluidics, biogels and the combinations of novel and existing drugs and nanomaterials in the SU pipeline with chemo- and radiotherapy produced by a variety of radiation sources. The group will also be integral to the new TIC building hosting the SCAPA (Scottish centre for applied particle accelerators) facility. This research environment is a resource which is unique to Strathclyde University.
The Group is highly active within the recently established RICAS (Research In Cancer at Strathclyde) initiative, has been highly successful in achieving multi-disciplinary, Industry and clinical linked funding. The breadth of research has also recently expanded by involvement in the SIPBS led multi-university programme in pharmacoepidemiology. With our partners we are interrogating prescribing databases to interrogate questions which may lead to the development of better and more personalised cancer therapeutics. The group is also involved with several drug discovery programmes within and outwith the university and has developed phenotypic assay cascades to aid these programmes.
Dr Boyd's group is highly active in the research, industrial and clinical arena and the lab hosts senior fellows, Post docs, PhD students, research assistants, undergraduate and students from within SIPBS and from other University Departments (Physics, chemistry, EEE). The Boyd group will also host vertically Integrated Studentships (VIPs) within the lab, which are being run in collaboration with Chemistry and EEE and we are becoming partners in the Laser Plasma Accelerator Doctoral training centre spearheaded by the university.
Links:
http://www.strath.ac.uk/impact/turningelectronsintoopportunities/
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The equipment will support an extensive research portfolio in laser-plasma physics and multidisciplinary applications, with an emphasis on radiation sources and healthcare applications. The unique properties of laser-driven radiation sources make them attractive both as tools for science (e.g. femtosecond X-ray sources for probing the structure of matter) and for applications in a variety of sectors including: healthcare (e.g. imaging and radiotherapy); industry (e.g. penetrative probing and assay) and energy (e.g. testing the integrity of stored nuclear waste). The strategic development of this field requires a balanced programme of dedicated university-scale and leading-edge national laser facilities. The proposed beamlines will complement existing and planned expansion of national facilities at the Central Laser Facility, providing new capability and capacity to enable UK research groups to remain at the forefront of this research area and help promote international collaboration.
The research will be performed collaboratively with groups from across the UK and sustained mainly through collaborative research grants. The new suite of beamlines will promote exchanges between academia and industry, and enable engagement of the UK research community with large international projects, such as the Extreme Light Infrastructure, ELI. It will also provide a unique interdisciplinary training platform for researchers.
The project is involves a large group of Collaborators and Partners, who will contribute to both theoretical and experimental work. The diverse programme is managed through a synergistic approach where there is strong linkage between work-packages, and both theoretical and experiential methodologies are applied bilaterally: experiments are informed by theory at planning and data interpretation stages, and theory is steered by the outcome of experimental studies, which results in a virtuous circle that advances understanding of the physics inside and outside the lab in a bubble. We also expect to make major advances in high field physics and the development of a new generation of compact coherent X-ray sources."
Contact
Dr
Marie
Boyd
Reader
Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
Email: marie.boyd@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 2263