Valerie Speirs

FRCPath
Alma materUniversity of Aberdeen (BSc)
University of Glasgow (PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsCancer biology
Breast cancer
Molecular pathology[1]
InstitutionsUniversity of Aberdeen
University of Leeds
University of Liverpool
University of Hull
The Hospital for Sick Children
ThesisThe role of fibroblasts in the differentiation of human non-small cell lung carcinoma (1989)
Doctoral advisorIan Freshney[2]
Websitewww.abdn.ac.uk/ims/research/cell-cancer-biology/profiles/valerie.speirs

Valerie Speirs FRCPath is a Professor of Molecular Oncology at the University of Aberdeen.[1] Her research aims to identify biomarkers of breast cancer to inform diagnosis and treatment.[3][4]

Education

Speirs studied zoology at the University of Aberdeen.[5] She completed her graduate studies at the University of Glasgow.[6][5] She worked with Ian Freshney on cell culture and became interested in how cell culture systems can be used to model disease.[2]

Career and research

Speirs research investigates Cancer biology, Breast cancer and Molecular pathology.[1][3][4]

Speirs joined The Hospital for Sick Children. Speirs worked at the University of Hull on the expression of oestrogen receptor mRNA.[7][8] She looked at the role of the CGA gene in endocrine response.[9]

Speirs was a member of the Breast Cancer Campaign Scientific Advisory Board in 2008.[10] She joined the Irish Health Research Board in 2009.[10] She served as principal investigator of the Leeds Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank.[5] She oversaw the launch of the tissue bank with the cancer research community in 2012.[5] The tissue bank was a founding member of the Breast Cancer Now tissue bank.[11]

Speirs joined the University of Leeds in 2012. Since then she has been a member of the Sloane Project steering group, a five year study of 1,000 women.[12] As lead of the St James's University Hospital Institute of Cancer & Pathology, Speirs looked to transfer lab-based molecular pathology techniques into the clinic for the identification of breast carcinoma in men and women.[13] She serves on the advisory group of the National Cancer Research Institute biomarkers advisory group.[10] She studies oestrogen receptor biology and endocrine resistant breast cancer.[14] She has looked to identify the biomarkers for male breast cancer, finding that the androgen receptor biomarker had prognostic significance.[15] She found that male breast cancers over-express eukaryotic initiation factors.[16] She developed a series of resources to educate nurses in observing breast cancer.[17]

In 2016 Speirs launched the virtual resource Sharing Experimental Animal Resources: Coordinating Holdings in Breast Cancer (SEARCHBreast), a platform to share materials that are surplus to animal studies of breast cancer.[18][19][20] The project was part of a NC3R grant to develop smart approaches to reduce animal use in science.[21] The resources are available for the characterisation of tumour biomarkers and to investigate the effect of treatment.[22] In 2018 Speirs joined the University of Aberdeen. She holds a visiting lectureship at the University of Leeds. She is a member of the Cellular Molecular Pathology initiative of National Cancer Research Institute.[18][11] She is working with James Boyne at the University of Bradford on miRNA using blood and breast cancer tissues from the Breast Cancer Tissue Bank.[23] They will investigate how endocrine disrupting agents modulate the activity of fibroblasts in high and low mammographic density breast tissue.[24] They use a 3D in vitro model of the human mammary gland.[24] By identifying how oestrogen mimics effect human fibroblasts from areas of different breast density it will be possible to identify how the drives breast cancer development.[24] She has published extensively on breast cancer and has a h-index of over 40.[25] She is associate editor for BMC Cancer.

Awards and honours

Speirs was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath) in 2007.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Valerie Speirs publications indexed by Google Scholar
  2. 1 2 "Choosing the right cell line for your research". www.phe-culturecollections.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  3. 1 2 Valerie Speirs publications from Europe PubMed Central
  4. 1 2 Valerie Speirs publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Eleogui, Stella. "Valerie Speirs". medhealth.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  6. ↑ Speirs, Valerie (1989). The role of fibroblasts in the differentiation of human non-small cell lung carcinoma (PhD thesis). University of Glasgow. OCLC 181830156. Copac 7975917.
  7. ↑ Knight, C. H.; Peaker, M.; Wilde, C. J. (2012). Intercellular Signalling in the Mammary Gland. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9781461519737.
  8. ↑ Speirs, Valerie; Boyle‐Walsh, Eilis; Fraser, William D. (1997). "Constitutive co‐expression of estrogen and progesterone receptor mRNA in human meningiomas by RT‐PCR and response of in vitro cell cultures to steroid hormone". International Journal of Cancer. 72 (5): 714–719. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097-0215(19970904)72:5<714::AID-IJC2>3.0.CO;2-V. ISSN 1097-0215. PMID 9311583. S2CID 21116287.
  9. ↑ Speirs, Valerie (2001). "Endocrine response: Is CGAthe key?". Breast Cancer Research. 3 (1). doi:10.1186/bcr-2001-68452. ISSN 1465-542X.
  10. 1 2 3 Eleogui, Stella. "Valerie Speirs". medhealth.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  11. 1 2 "Biobanks A-Z - UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre". UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  12. ↑ Thompson, Alastair M.; Clements, Karen; Cheung, Shan; Pinder, Sarah E.; Lawrence, Gill; Sawyer, Elinor; Kearins, Olive; Ball, Graham R.; Tomlinson, Ian (2018). "Management and 5-year outcomes in 9938 women with screen-detected ductal carcinoma in situ: the UK Sloane Project". European Journal of Cancer. 101: 210–219. doi:10.1016/j.ejca.2018.06.027. hdl:20.500.11820/4abfb0bc-d0ff-47e3-9bae-da980d6d41ff. ISSN 1879-0852. PMID 30092498. S2CID 51955162.
  13. ↑ Sellers, Graham. "Breast Research Group". medhealth.leeds.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  14. ↑ Convention, European Oncology. "Seminars - Oncology Convention". Oncology Convention. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  15. ↑ Humphries, Matthew P.; Sundara Rajan, Sreekumar; Honarpisheh, Hedieh; Cserni, Gabor; Dent, Jo; Fulford, Laura; Jordan, Lee B.; Jones, J. Louise; Kanthan, Rani (2017-03-28). "Characterisation of male breast cancer: a descriptive biomarker study from a large patient series". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 45293. Bibcode:2017NatSR...745293H. doi:10.1038/srep45293. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5368596. PMID 28350011.
  16. ↑ "The rise of male breast cancer". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  17. ↑ "Male breast cancer | Nursing in Practice". www.nursinginpractice.com. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  18. 1 2 "Professor Valerie Speirs | Staff Profile | The Institute of Medical Sciences | The University of Aberdeen". www.abdn.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  19. ↑ Anon (2017). "Scientists collaborate to reduce number of animals needed for research - News - Oncology & Metabolism - The University of Sheffield". sheffield.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  20. ↑ Morrissey, Bethny; Holen, Ingunn; Chelala, Claude; Carter, Phil; Jones, Louise; Blyth, Karen; Speirs, Valerie (2016). "Introducing SEARCHBreast: a virtual resource to facilitate sharing of surplus animal material developed for breast cancer research". npj Breast Cancer. 2 (1): 16020. doi:10.1038/npjbcancer.2016.20. ISSN 2374-4677. PMC 5515334. PMID 28721381.
  21. ↑ "£4.8m funding awarded for smart approaches to reduce animal use in science | NC3Rs". www.nc3rs.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  22. ↑ Speirs, Valerie (2015). "Share surplus animal tissue". Nature. 522 (7555): 156. doi:10.1038/522156c. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 26062499.
  23. ↑ "Bradford scientist awarded £90k to investigate link between diabetes and breast cancer - 2018 - University of Bradford". www.bradford.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  24. 1 2 3 "Effect of EDCs on breast density | Breast Cancer UK". www.breastcanceruk.org.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  25. ↑ "Valerie Speirs | Sci-napse | Academic search engine for paper". Scinapse. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
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