Dr Robert Kypta

United Kingdom

Research Interests

cell signalling, cancer, stem cell differentiation, epithelial-stromal communication, epigenetics, cell migration and invasion

We study secreted factors that play important roles during embryonic development and whose signals are reactivated in disease settings, including cancer. We are keen to collaborate with any interested parties to apply our ideas and reagents in organ-on-a-chip models (we have no experience in this area). Currently, we use a 3D prostate epithelial acinar morphogenesis model to characterise signalling by a protein, Dickkopf-3, that can prevent cancer progression by maintaining a benign environment (Al Shareef et al., Oncogene 2018). Dickkopf-3 is also implicated in skeletal muscle atrophy and atherosclerosis. We also study Wnt signalling in prostate tumour cell invasion (Murillo et al., Nature Communications, 2018) and in neural stem cell differentiation (Bengoa et al., Molecular Neurobiology, 2017) and would be interested in testing our reagents in cancer and neural organ-on-a-chip models.