Cancer research supported by HWB•NMR includes tumour suppressor and oncoprotein mechanisms and cell signaling during cancer progression and metastasis, and cancer biomarkers, pathology and clinical trials which are carried out in collaboration with the School of Cancer Sciences and Clinical Trials Unit.

Local user groups led by Ulrich Günther, Michael Overduin and Andrew Peet as well as many external users involved in cancer research are funded by Cancer Research UK, Leukemia Research Foundation, Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust.

Recent discoveries include:

• discovery of metabolic biomarkers for colon cancer (C Ludwig et al, submitted, 2007)
• identification of diagnostic markers for brain cancer (AC Peet et al. NMR Biomed, 2007).
• elucidation of ligand and inhibitor specificities of the SH2 domain of the Abl oncoprotein (E TokoNzaba et al, Chem Biol Drug Design, 2007)
• discovery of the link between syntenins and tetraspanins involved in cell adhesion and cancer metastasis (N Latysheva et al, Mol Cell Biol 2006).