Andrew P South

Biography

Dr Andrew South is a genetics graduate from the University of Leeds, who obtained his PhD from the University of London in 1999 whilst working on the human genome project with Dean Nizetic. Following this from 1999‐2002 he was a postdoctoral research fellow at St John’s Institute of Dermatology, St Thomas’ Hospital in London with John McGrath. He then worked as a research associate with Ian Hart and subsequently as a lecturer in Irene Leigh’s department at Bart’s and the London from 2002 to 2007. Currently he is a Senior Lecturer with the University of Dundee, based at Ninewells Hospital in the Division of Cancer Research whose laboratory interests centre on determining and dissecting basic mechanisms implicated in the underlying pathogenesis of skin disorders such as recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).  

Research Interest

Squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) collectively are the most common ectodermal cancers, resulting in >300,000 deaths per year. SCCs arise from renewable squamous epithelial cells that serve to create a barrier to the external environment in the skin, esophagus, lung and cervix. An early feature of squamous neoplasia is disruption of programmed differentiation, typically associated with thickening of the epithelium and increased proliferation. My laboratory focuses primarily on cutaneous SCC (cSCC) which is the most frequent skin cancer with malignant potential and contributes to greater than 1 in 4 skin cancer deaths in Scotland. Patient groups with a high propensity to develop these tumours face a significant risk of mortality. One such group is the genetic skin blistering condition recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) which is a devastating disease caused by mutations in a single gene, COL7A1. COL7A1 encodes for a protein called type VII collagen that forms connective fibrils linking the outer layer of the skin to the underlying tissue. My laboratory has a long standing interesting in trying to understand why mutations in this single gene lead to frequent and multiple life-threatening skin cancers.