Dr Kate Relph

Postdoctoral Reseach Fellow

Qualifications: BSc PhD

Email:
Phone: Work: 01483 68 8562
Room no: 09 PGM 02

Office hours

9am-3pm Monday-Wednesday

Further information

Biography

Kate currently works  within the laboratory of Professor Hardev Pandha at the Postgraduate Medical School. Her role involves writing review articles and book chapters as well as helping the scientists to write and submit their original research papers. In addition to this she is responsible for administering the group's grant applications.

 

Kate studied Biochemistry at the University of Bristol and spent a year at Roche Pharmaceuticals as part of her industrial sandwich placement. Following this she went on to study for a PhD at the University of Oxford. Her thesis was entitled ‘Analysis and exploitation of hypoxia response elements for targeted gene therapy’ and part of her time was spent working in the biotechnology company Oxford BioMedica. After this she went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research where she developed retrovial vectors to immortalise primary breast cells within the laboratory of Professor Parmjit Jat.

 

Having had her first child she decided she wanted to move away from the bench but stay in science and began working for Professor Pandha at St George’s, University of London as a science writer. When Professor Pandha gained his chair at the University of Surrey Kate moved with him to help set up his group.

Research Interests

Gene Therapy – In particular Viral Vectors

Cancer

Immunotherapy

Publications

Journal articles

  • Heinemann L, Simpson GR, Boxall A, Kottke T, Relph KL, Vile R, Melcher A, Prestwich R, Harrington KJ, Morgan R, Pandha HS. (2011) 'Synergistic effects of oncolytic reovirus and docetaxel chemotherapy in prostate cancer.'. BMC Cancer, England: 11

    Abstract

    Reovirus type 3 Dearing (T3D) has demonstrated oncolytic activity in vitro, in in vivo murine models and in early clinical trials. However the true potential of oncolytic viruses may only be realized fully in combination with other modalities such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy and radiotherapy. In this study, we examine the oncolytic activity of reovirus T3D and chemotherapeutic agents against human prostate cancer cell lines, with particular focus on the highly metastatic cell line PC3 and the chemotherapeutic agent docetaxel. Docetaxel is the standard of care for metastatic prostate cancer and acts by disrupting the normal process of microtubule assembly and disassembly. Reoviruses have been shown to associate with microtubules and may require this association for efficient viral replication.

  • Michael A, Relph K, Pandha H. (2010) 'Emergence of potential biomarkers of response to anti-angiogenic anti-tumour agents'. JOHN WILEY & SONS INC INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER, 127 (6), pp. 1251-1258.
  • Pandha H, D'Ambrosio C, Heenan S, Hyde N, Di Palma S, Nutting C, Relph K, Harrington K. (2009) 'Indium-labelled Autologous Dendritic Cells Migrate to Local Lymph Nodes after Intratumoural Injection in Head and Neck Cancer Patients'. ELSEVIER SCIENCE LONDON CLINICAL ONCOLOGY, 21 (4), pp. 363-364.
  • Michael A, Politi E, Havranek E, Corbishley C, Karapanagiotou L, Anderson C, Relph K, Syrigos KN, Pandha H. (2007) 'Prognostic significance of erythropoietin expression in human renal cell carcinoma'. BLACKWELL PUBLISHING BJU INTERNATIONAL, 100 (2), pp. 291-294.
  • Pandha H, Birchall L, Meyer B, Wilson N, Relph K, Anderson C, Harrington K. (2006) 'Antitumor effects of aminobisphosphonates on renal cell carcinoma cell lines'. ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC JOURNAL OF UROLOGY, 176 (5), pp. 2255-2261.
  • Relph KL, Michael A, Havranek E, Anderson C, Polychronis A, Corbishley C, Pandha H. (2006) 'Prognostic impact of P53, EGFR and HER2/Neu proteins on renal cell carcinoma'. Internet Journal of Urology,
  • Relph KL, Harrington KJ, Pandha H. (2005) 'Adenoviral strategies for the gene therapy of cancer'. W B SAUNDERS CO SEMINARS IN ONCOLOGY, 32 (6), pp. 573-582.
  • Relph KL, Harrington K, Pandha H. (2004) 'Gene Therapy using viral vectors; recent developments and current status in the United Kingdom'. British Medical Journal,
  • Boast KL, Binley K, Iqball S, Price T, Spearman H, Kingsman SM, Kingsman A, Naylor S. (1999) 'Characterisation of physiologically regulated vectors for the treatment of ischaemic disease.'. Human Gene Therapy,

Conference papers

  • Pandha S, Heinemann L, Simpson GR, Boxall A, Relph K, Morgan R. (2011) 'Synergistic effects of oncolytic reovirus and docetaxel chemotherapy in prostate cancer'. WILEY-BLACKWELL BRITISH JOURNAL OF SURGERY, Royal Coll Surgery, Dublin, IRELAND: Annual Meeting of the Society-of-Academic-and-Research-Surgery 98, pp. 47-48.

Book chapters

  • Relph KL. (2008) 'Adenoviruses'. in Pandha H, Harrington K, Vile R (eds.) Viruses for Cancer Gene Therapy