In the Whitaker lab we use the biomarker pipeline to identify, validate and develop novel biomarkers and therapeutics for cholangiocarcinoma and prostate, pancreatic, ovarian and bladder cancers. We focus on membranous and secreted proteins which can be detected in biological fluids or easily targeted for therapy.
Biomarkers for early diagnosis are discovered by mining genomic and protein datasets using our knowledge of pathology to identify discriminatory molecules. Alternatively we do welcome approaches for collaborations with external groups.
As much of the discovery work is completed in cell lines one of our key steps is test potential biomarkers on tissue at the earliest opportunity using our immunohistochemistry (IHC) pipeline. Using the appropriate resources we can use IHC to determine if a biomarker is also prognostic or predictive. If the IHC data is convincing we go on to develop ELISAs in-house and then convert them to the Mesoscale Discovery platform in collaboration with the Core Biochemistry Assay Laboratory