Research Program Overview
We strive to understand the regulatory circuitry that allows cancers to metastasise. We join our special expertise in RNA biology, genomics and bioinformatics into close collaborations with the CCB research groups of A/Professors Cameron Bracken, Philip Gregory, Yeesim Khew-Goodall and Quenten Schwarz to conduct major programs aiming to discover new potential therapeutic targets in metastatic cancers.
Current Research Projects
- Characterising the interactions between microRNAs and their targets
- Roles of alternative splicing in epithelial cancer cell plasticity
- Interactions between microRNAs and transcription factors in epithelial-mesenchymal transition
- Formation and function of circRNAs in cancers
- iPSC differentiation into sympathetic neurons as a model for defining regulatory deviations that drive neuroblastoma
Laboratory staff
Laboratory head
Team Members
Postdoctoral Research Scientists
Researcn and technical assistants
Students
- Ms Ayushi Notra
- Ms Sepideh Mehrpour Layeghi
Select Recent Publications
- Ngo LH, Bert AG, Dredge BK, Williams T, Murphy V, Li W, Hamilton WB, Carey KT, Toubia J, Pillman KA, Liu D, Desogus J, Chao JA, Deans AJ, Goodall GJ, Wickramasinghe VO. Nuclear export of circular RNA. Nature. 627:212-220, 2024.
- Liu D, Dredge BK, Bert AG, Pillman KA, Toubia J, Guo W, Dyakov BJA, Migault MM, Conn VM, Conn SJ, Gregory PA, Gingras AC, Patel D, Wu B, Goodall GJ. ESRP1 controls biogenesis and function of a large abundant multiexon circRNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 52(3):1387-1403, 2024
- Neumann DP, Phillips CA, Lumb R, Palethorpe HM, Ramani Y, Hollier BG, Selth LA, Bracken CP, Goodall GJ, Gregory PA. Quaking isoforms cooperate to promote the mesenchymal phenotype. Mol Biol Cell. 2024 Feb 1;35(2):ar17.
- Sapkota S, Pillman KA, Dredge BK, Liu D, Bracken JM, Kachooei SA, Chereda B, Gregory PA, Bracken CP, Goodall GJ. On the rules of engagement for microRNAs targeting protein coding regions. Nucleic Acids Res. 519938-9951, 2023.
- Conn VM, Gabryelska M, Toubia J, Kirk K, Gantley L, Powell JA, Cildir G, Marri S, Liu R, Stringer BW, Townley S, Webb ST, Lin H, Samaraweera SE, Bailey S, Moore AS, Maybury M, Liu D, Colella AD, Chataway T, Wallington-Gates CT, Walters L, Sibbons J, Selth LA, Tergaonkar V, D'Andrea RJ, Pitson SM, Goodall GJ, Conn SJ. Circular RNAs drive oncogenic chromosomal translocations within the MLL recombinome in leukemia. Cancer Cell. 41:1309-1326, 2023.
- Bracken CP, Goodall GJ. The many regulators of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 23:89-90 2022
- RC Fernandes, J Toubia, S Townley, AR Hanson, BK Dredge, KA Pillman, AG Bert, JM Winter, R Iggo, R Das, D Obinata, S Sandhu, GP Risbridger, RA Taylor, MG Lawrence, LM Butler, A Zoubeidi, P Gregory, WD Tilley, TE Hickey, GJ Goodall, LA Selth. Post-transcriptional Gene Regulation by MicroRNA-194 Promotes Neuroendocrine Trans-differentiation in Prostate Cancer. Cell Reports 34:108585, 2021
- Goodall GJ and Wickramasinghe V. RNA in cancer Nat Rev Cancer 21:22-36, 2021
- Pillman KA, Scheer KG, Hackett-Jones E, Saunders K, Bert AG, Toubia J, Whitfield HJ, Sapkota S, Sourdin L, Pham H, Le TD, Cursons J, Davis MJ, Gregory PA, Goodall GJ, Bracken CP. Extensive transcriptional responses are co-ordinated by microRNAs as revealed by Exon-Intron Split Analysis (EISA). Nucleic Acids Res. 47:8606-8619. 2019.
- Pillman KA, Phillips ca, Roslan S, Toubia J, Dredge BK, Bert AG, Lumb R, Neumann DP, Li X, Conn SJ, Liu D, Lawrence DM, Stylianou N, Schreiber AW, Tilley WD, Hollier BG, Khew-Goodall Y, Selth LA, Goodall GJ, Gregory PA. miR-200-375 control epithelial plasticity-associated alternative splicing by repressing the RNA-binding protein Quaking. EMBO J. 37(13): e99016.
- Yu F, Pillman KA, Neilsen CT, Toubia J, Lawrence DM, Tsykin A, Gantier MP, Callen DF, Goodall GJ, Bracken CP. Naturally existing isoforms of miR-222 have distinct functions. Nucleic Acids Res. 45:11371-11385, 2017.
- Conn SJ, Pillman KA, Toubia J, Conn VM, Salmanidis M, Phillips CA, Roslan S, Schreiber AW, Gregory PA and Goodall GJ. The RNA binding protein Quaking regulates formation of circRNAs. Cell 160:1125-1134, 2015.
- Bracken CP, Li X, Wright JA, Lawrence D, Pillman KA, Salmanidis M, Anderson MA, Dredge BK, Gregory PA, Tsykin A, Neilsen C, Thomson DW, Bert AG, Leerberg JM, Yap AS, Jensen KB, Khew-Goodall Y, Goodall GJ. Genome-wide identification of miR-200 targets reveals a regulatory network controlling cell invasion. EMBO J. 33:2040-2056, 2014.
- Li X, Roslan S, Johnstone CN, Wright JA, Bracken CP, Anderson M, Bert AG, Selth LA, Anderson RA, Goodall GJ, Gregory PA, Khew-Goodall Y. MiR-200 can repress breast cancer metastasis through ZEB1-independent, but moesin-dependent pathways. Oncogene 33:4077-4088, 2014.
- Lim YY, Wright JA, Attema JA, Gregory PA, Bert AG, Smith E, Thomas D, Lopez AF, Drew PA, Khew-Goodall Y and Goodall GJ. Epigenetic modulation of the miR-200 family is associated with transition to a breast cancer stem cell-like state. J. Cell Sci. 126:2256-2266, 2013.
- Paterson EL, Kazenwadel J, Bert AG, Khew-Goodall Y, Ruszkiewicz A, Goodall GJ Downregulation of the miRNA-200 family at the invasive front of colorectal cancers with degraded basement membrane indicates EMT is involved in cancer progression. Neoplasia 15:180-191, 2013.
- Bracken CP, Gregory PA, Kolesnikoff N, Bert AG, Wang J, Shannon MF, Goodall GJ. A double-negative feedback loop between ZEB1-SIP1 and the microRNA-200 family regulates epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Cancer Res. 68: 7846-7854, 2008.
- Gregory PA, Bert AG, Paterson EL, Barry SC, Tsykin A, Farshid G, Vadas MA, Khew-Goodall Y, Goodall GJ. The microRNA-200 family and miR-205 regulate epithelial-mesenchymal transition by targeting the E-cadherin repressors, ZEB1 and SIP1. Nature Cell Biol. 10;593-601, 2008.
