Invasion and Metastasis - Senior Research Staff - Dr Honor Hugo

Dr Honor Hugo

Research Officer (level 3)
National Breast Cancer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow

Education and Professional Experience

1995 B.app Sci (Med. Lab. Sci.), RMIT University, Australia

1999 B.app Sci (Med. Lab. Sci.) (Hons), RMIT University, Australia 2001 Ph.D., Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, University of Melbourne, Australia

2005-2008 Post-doctoral Fellow with Dr. Don Newgreen, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia

2008 Research Officer, St. Vincent’s Institute, Australia

2009 National Breast Cancer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow

Achievements

2010 Cancer Therapeutics CRC Post-doctoral Travel Award

2010 22nd Lorne Cancer Conference Poster Award

2009 Victorian Cancer Agency Early Career Seed Grant

2008 NBCF Postdoctoral Training fellowship

2001 Melbourne Research Scholarship

Research Interests

I conduct research into understanding how a primary tumor spreads to a secondary site, specifically, the cellular change that is necessary for invasion and metastasis, termed Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition. My research focuses on the role of key genes which orchestrate this change, the transcriptional repressors of E-cadherin: Snail1, Snail2 and Zeb1. I am interested in the downregulation of proliferation in EMT which is modulated by these factors, and how proliferation may be re-started at secondary sites in which it is proposed that the reversal of EMT, that is, MET occurs. A gene central to the proliferative response is MYB and several lines of evidence points to its regulation by Snail1, Snail2 and Zeb1 enabling proliferation to be manipulated in cancer growth and spread.

Selected Publications

  1. Hugo HJ, MI Kokkinos, T Blick, ML Ackland, EW Thompson, DF Newgreen. Defining the E-cadherin Repressor Interactome in Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition - The PMC42 Model as a Case Study. Cells Tissues Organs 2010 Nov 2 [Epub ahead of print].
  2. Blick T, HJ Hugo, E Widodo, M Waltham, C Pinto, SA Mani, RA Weingberg, RM Neve, ME Lenburg, EW Thompson. Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition Traits in Human Breast Cancer Cell Lines Parallel the CD44hi/CD24lo/- Stem Cell Phenotype in Human Breast Cancer. J Mammary Gland Biol Neoplasia 2010 Jun; 15(2):235-252.
  3. Hugo HJ, R Wafai, T Blick, EW Thompson, DF Newgreen. Staurosporine augments EGF-mediated EMT in PMC42-LA cells through actin depolymerisation, focal contact size reduction and Snail1 induction – A model for cross-modulation. BMC Cancer 2009 9:235.
  4. Drabsch Y, HJ Hugo, R Zhang, YR Miao, AM Gewirtz, SC Barry, RG Ramsay, TJ Gonda. Mechanism of and Requirement for Estrogen-Regulated MYB Expression in Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer Cells. PNAS 2007 104(34):13762-13767.
  5. Hugo HJ, A Cures, N Suraweera, Y Drabsch, D Purcell, T Mantamadiotis, W Phillips, A Dobrovic, G Zupi, TJ Gonda, B Iacopetta, RG Ramsay. Mutations in the MYB Intron 1 Regulatory Sequence Increase Transcription in Colon Cancers. Genes, Chromosomes and Cancer 2006 45(12):1143-1154.
  6. Hugo HJ, ML Ackland, MG Lawrence, JA Clements, ED Williams, EW Thompson. Epithelial—Mesenchymal and Mesenchymal—Epithelial Transitions in Carcinoma Tumour Progression. Journal of Cellular Physiology 2007 213(2):374-383.