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Professor Judith Clements
Hormone Dependent Cancer Program, Science Research Centre & School of Life Sciences
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, QLD 4001
Email: j.clements@qut.edu.au
Tel: +61-7-3864 1899
Fax: +61-7-3864 1534
Homepage:
| Research |
The primary interest of my group within the Hormone Dependent Cancer Program is the tissue kallikrein family of serine proteases. Our group was one of three worldwide that identified and characterised the expanded human tissue kallikrein gene locus on chromosome 19q13.4 in 1999. Since that time, our research has focussed on defining the roles of particular kallikreins, and their variant forms, in hormone dependent cancers such as prostate, ovarian and endometrial cancer. We have used conventional/real time PCR and immunohistochemistry to determine the association of kallikrein expression with clinical disease to determine their usefulness as biomarkers for detection, prognostic outcome and therapeutic approaches. We are also utilizing over-expression and knockout systems to determine the effect of kallikrein expression in cancer cell lines at the cell biology level. Other studies in progress are directed to understanding the structure/function of the kallikreins, their substrate specificity and in vivo interacting proteins and genomic regulation.
Other protease research interests are the type 2 trans membrane serine proteases (with Dr John Hooper) and the ADAMs (with Prof Adrian Herington and Dr Dimitri Odorico). |
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| Collaborations |
Dr Toni Antalis, American Red Cross, Bethesda, USA
Drs Steve Miolajczyk, Judith Finlay & Harry Rittenhouse, Beckman Coulter, San Diego, USA
Drs Maria Brattsand & Torbun Egelrud, Umea Univeristy, Sweden.
Dr Tom Takayama, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
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| Publications |
Stephenson, S-A., Verity K, Ashworth, L. and Clements, J.A. Localisation of a new prostate specific antigen-related serine protease gene, KLK4, is evidence for an expanded human kallikrein gene family on chromosome 19q13.3-13.4. J. Biol.Chem. 274: 23210-23214, 1999.
Harvey, T.J., Hooper, J.D., Myers, S.A., Stephenson, S-A., Ashworth, L.K. and Clements, J.A. Tissue-specific expression patterns and fine mapping of the human kallikrein (KLK) locus on proximal 19q13.4. J Biol Chem 48: 37397-37406, 2000.
Myers, S.A. and Clements, J.A. Kallikrein 4 (KLK4), a new member of the human kallikrein gene family is upregulated by estrogen and progesterone in the human endometrial cancer cell line, KLE. J Clin Endocrinol Metab,86: 2323-2326, 2001.
Dong, Y., Kaushal, A., Brattsand, M., Nicklin, J., Egelrud, T., Clements, J.A. Differential Splicing of KLK5 and KLK7 in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Produces Novel Variants with Potential as Cancer Biomarkers. Clin Cancer Res 9:1710-20, 2003.
Clements, J.A., Hooper, J.D., Odorico, D.M. and Dong, Y. “The tissue kallikrein gene cluster” in the Handbook of Proteolytic Enzymes, 2nd edition, Academic Press, London. In Press 2003.
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