Dr. Aileen Houston
Dr. Aileen Houston
2008-Present | Senior Research Scientist, Dept. of Medicine, UCC |
2005 -2008 | HRB Postdoctoral Fellow & Lecturer, UCC |
2003 - 2005 | Post-Doctoral Research Scientist, UCC |
2003 | PhD (Med) |
Awards
St. Luke’s Young Investigator Award, Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, 2006.Travel Scholarship from Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory to attend course on Immunocytochemistry, In situ Hybridisation and Live Cell Imaging, 2001.
Poster of Distinction Award, American Gastroenterology Association (AGA), Digestive Disease Week, Atlanta, 2001.
First Prize Scientific Poster Presentation (Pfizer Medal), Annual Medical Research Day, University Hospital Cork, 2001.
Student Abstract Prize, AGA, Digestive Disease Week, San Diego, CA, 2000.
First Prize Scientific Poster Presentation (Pfizer Medal) (co-author), Annual Medical Research Day, University Hospital Cork, 1999.
Publications
O’Callaghan G, Kelly J, Shanahan F and Houston A. 2008. Prostaglandin E2 stimulates Fas ligand expression via the EP1 receptor in colon cancer cells. Br J Cancer 99:502-12. PMID: 18648368.
Houston AM, Michael-Robinson JM, Walsh MD, Cummings MC, Ryan AE, Lincoln D, Pandeya N, Jass JR, Radford-Smith GL, O’Connell J. 2008. The "Fas counterattack" is not an active mode of tumor immune evasion in colorectal cancer with high-level microsatellite instability. Hum Pathol 39:243-50. PMID: 17961631.
O’Sullivan GC, Tangney M, Casey G, Ambrose M, Houston A and Barry OP. 2007. Modulation of p21-activated kinase 1 alters the behavior of renal cell carcinoma. Int J Cancer 121:1930-40. PMID: 176221631
Ryan AE , Shanahan F, O'Connell J, Houston A. 2006. Fas ligand promotes tumor immune evasion of colon cancer in vivo. Cell Cycle 5(3):246-9.
Busteed S, Bennett MW, Molloy C, Houston A, Stone MA, Shanahan F, Molloy MG, O’Connell J. 2006. Bcl-XL expression in vivo in Rheumatoid Synovium. Clin Rheumatol (epub ahead of print).
Ryan AE, Lane S, Shanahan F, O'Connell J, Houston A. 2006. Fas ligand expression in human and mouse cancer cell lines; a caveat on over-reliance on mRNA data. J Carcinog Feb 2;5(1):5 (epub ahead of print).
Ryan AE, Shanahan F, O'Connell J, Houston AM. 2005. Addressing the "Fas counterattack" controversy: Blocking Fas ligand expression suppresses tumor immune evasion of colon cancer in vivo. Cancer Res 65:9817-23.
Houston A and O’Connell J. 2004. The Fas signalling pathway and its role in the pathogenesis of cancer. Current Opinion in Pharmacology 4:321-6.
Houston A, Bennett MW, O’Sullivan GC, Shanahan F, O’Connell J. 2003. Fas ligand mediates immune privilege and not inflammation in human colon cancer, irrespective of TGF- b expression. British Journal of Cancer 89:1345-1351.
Houston A, Waldron-Lynch FD, Bennett MW, Roche D, O’Sullivan GC, Shanahan F, O’Connell J. 2003. Fas ligand expressed in colon cancer is not associated with increased apoptosis of tumor cells in vivo. International Journal of Cancer 107:209-214.
O’Connell J, Houston A, Bennett MW, O’Sullivan GC, Shanahan F. 2001. Immune privilege or inflammation? Insights into the Fas ligand enigma. Nature Medicine 7:271-274.
Bennett MW, O’Connell J, Houston A, Kelly J, O’Sullivan GC, Collins JK, Shanahan F. 2001. Fas ligand upregulation is an early event in colonic carcinogenesis. Journal of Clinical Pathology 54:598-604.
Research Interests
Cancer is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Despite evidence that the host immune system can initiate an immune response against tumours, a large number of tumours continue to growth and evade immune-mediated elimination due to the development of multiple escape mechanisms, some of which target anti-tumour immune effector cells, resulting in dysfunction and apoptosis of these cells. One such mechanism may be upregulated expression of Fas ligand (FasL/CD95L). FasL is a member of the tumour necrosis factor superfamily that can trigger apoptotic cell death following ligation to its receptor, Fas. Our research is aimed at advancing our understanding of the role of the Fas/FasL signalling pathway in tumour immune evasion, inflammation, apoptosis, immune suppression and cancer development.Presently this work is focused on:
- characterising the molecular signalling pathways involved in the induction of FasL expression in tumour cells
- investigating the role played by FasL to shaping the tumour microenvironment
- elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying FasL-mediated tumour immune evasion and immunomodulation
- developing novel cancer therapeutics based on FasL