Abdolrahman Shams Nateri

Biography

Upon successful fulfillment of his doctorate degree on the genetic engineering of Picornavirus, human Parechovirus 1, at the Essex Univ. 2001, he joined Cancer Research UK (CR-UK) London Research Institute (previously known as ICRF), where he carried out fundamental basic-research into the links between transcription, MAPKs signaling & diseases, including the cellular/molecular biology of cancer. his novel findings advanced knowledge in the pertinent field and also rewarded with publications in top research journals. In 2007, he joined the faculty of the UoN, where he started as a lecturer, and was promoted as an Associate Professor. At UoN, he have Research, Teaching and Administrative responsibilities, while established the Cancer Genetics & Stem Cell laboratory within the Division of Pre-clinical Oncology, currently with 2 post-docs, a technician and 5 PhD students.

Research Interest

· Since the last decade, it is believed that specific signalling pathways; "WNT and MAPK" that control crucial steps during embryonic development are often inappropriately reactivated during tumorigenesis. Cancer cells seem to take advantage of cellular principles inherent to normal stem cells which are crucial for maintenance, repair and regenerative processes of most adult tissues such as the intestinal epithelium system. Intestinal Epithelial Stem (IES) cell self-renewal is a physiological mechanism that not only maintains a small pool of (stem) cells that are able to proliferate indefinitely but also at the same time produce a variety of differentiated cells that fulfil and maintain the function of the organ. Our research takes advantage of various mouse models in which the expression of a number of transcriptional modifiers (c-Jun, Fbw7 and TCF4/b-catenin) conditionally altered in the gut. We use those model systems to study the molecular and cellular basis of IES cell self-renewal, the interaction of stem cells with their specialized microenvironment (stem cell niche) and the relationship between stem cells and tumorigenesis.