Sylwia Ammoun

Biography

Qualifications EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS 2005 PhD dissertation, Uppsala University, Sweden, Orexin Receptors in Recombinant CHO Cells. Signaling to Short- and Long Term Cells responses 2004 Transfer, Uppsala University, Sweden 1997 Degree of Master of Science, Uppsala University, Sweden Immunomodulatory-and-cytokine gene-cancer therapy 1996 BScs, Uppsala University, Sweden

Research Interest

During my career I have been involved in different projects including: 1) The development of immunomodulatory cancer vaccines to treat Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) (Clinical Immunology), 2) Investigation of the role of endogenous retroviruses in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) (Clinical Virology) and 3) Revealing the signalling of orexinergic receptors towards cell fate determination (Neuroscience). Since January 2006 I have been working at Professor Oliver Hanemann’s laboratory (Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, The Institute of Translational and Stratified Medicine). My work has centred on dissecting the signalling pathways involved in the development of Merlin-deficient tumours in order to find specific and effective treatments. I have successfully achieved external funding from four different charities where I was lead or single applicant. Additionally, I have published nine first authored papers, one book chapter and one invited article in Nature Reviews Neurology. I have also contributed to four other papers published by my colleagues. I am co-supervising a PhD student working on endogenous retroviruses in tumours (Dr Belshaw is the PI) and I am PI for additional PhD students studying the role of the prion proteins and TAM family receptors in the development of Merlin-deficient tumours. Our research team have received an award from Neurofibromatosis (NF) Advocure in recognition of our research and continued commitment to NF2. Additionally, my work within the NF2 field contributed to phase 0 clinical trials at our unit in collaboration with Manchester Hospital. My main goal is to find a good drug treatment for schwannomas and other Merlin-deficient tumours.