Chris McCabe is Professor of Molecular Endocrinology at the University of Birmingham. He works on mechanisms of endocrine cancers, including thyroid and breast tumour models. Specifically, the research of the McCabe group focuses on assessment of the role of the proto-oncogenes PTTG and PBF in thyroid, breast and colon tumours; in vitro and in vivo models exploring gene function; gene expression in multiple tumour models; mechanisms of aneuploidy and genetic instability; the action of the sodium iodide symporter NIS in thyroid tumours.
The McCabe group currently holds funding from the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK. Members of the group include an MRC Clinician Scientist, a CRUK Senior Research Fellow, an MRC Post Doctoral Fellow, a Wellcome Trust Surgical Fellow, an MRC Surgical Fellow, and 4 MRC and Wellcome funded PhD students.
Chris McCabe is also Director of Postgraduate Research in the School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine; is the forth-coming Programme Organising Secretary of the Society for Endocrinology; and is a Senior Editor of Endocrine Related Cancer.
Outside of science, Chris McCabe has published 9 novels under 2 pseudonyms, has written for newspapers including the Guardian and the Independent, and has been a script editor for several TV series.
Chris McCabe qualified with a BSc in Genetics from the University of Sheffield in 1990, and pursued a PhD in the behavioural genetics of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster at the University of Birmingham, which was awarded in 1995.
Subsequently, Chris became interested in applying emerging molecular genetic techniques to the study of human disease, and was appointed as an MRC Post Doctoral Fellow in the Division of Medical Sciences at the University of Birmingham, under the mentorship of Professor Jayne Franklyn.
Following a brief stint at the UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, Chris achieved the Marjorie Robinson Fellowship in Endocrinology and a Lectureship at the University of Birmingham. He subsequently progressed to Senior Lecturer, Reader, and a Chair in 2010.
Chris has lectured widely across the world both within science, and as a writer with a specific interest in the communication of science.
RJ Watkins, ML Read, VE Smith, GM Reynolds, L Buckley, G Lewy, MC Eggo, LS Loubiere, JA Franklyn, K Boelaert, McCabe CJ. 2010. PTTG Binding Factor – a New Gene in Breast Cancer. Cancer Research 70(9); 3739-49
James L. Thorne, Orla Maguire, Craig L. Doig, Sebastiano Battaglia, Merja Heinaniemi, Laura P. O’Neill, Bryan M. Turner, CJ McCabe, Carsten Carlberg, & Moray J. Campbell. 2010. VDR-induced CDKN1A cycling is determined by VDR binding region-specific regulation of histone modifications, cell cycle status, and miR-106b co-regulation. Nucleic Acids Research [Epub Nov 17 2010]
Reynolds LE, Watson AR, Baker M, Jones TA, Joffre C, D’Amico G, Garrido-Urbani S, Sheer D, Nizetic D, McCabe CJ, Turnell AS, Kermorgant S, Imhoff B, Fisher E, Tybulewicz VLJ, Hodivala-Dilke KM. 2010. Tumour angiogenesis is reduced in the Tc1 mouse model of Down Syndrome. Nature 465:813-7
Smith VE, Boelaert K, Read ML, Watkins RJ, Watkinson JC, Eggo MC, Franklyn JA and McCabe CJ. (2009). A novel mechanism regulating sodium iodide symporter function. Journal of Cell Science122(18):3393-402
James SR, Franklyn JA, Reaves BJ, Smith VE, Eggo MC, Chan SY, Barrett TG, Kilby MD and McCabe CJ. (2009). Monocarboxylate transporter 8 (MCT8) in neural cell growth. Endocrinology150(4):1961-1969
McCabe CJ. (2008). Moving towards the use of targeted therapies in thyroid cancer. Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology & Metabolism4(11):604-5
K Boelaert, VE Smith, AL Stratford, LA Tannahill, JC Watkinson, MC Eggo, JA Franklyn and McCabe CJ. (2007). PTTG and PBF Repress the Human Sodium Iodide Symporter. Oncogene 26(30):4344-56
Kim DS, Franklyn JA, Smith VE, Stratford AL, Boelaert K, Wakelam MJO and McCabe CJ. (2007). Pituitary Tumor Transforming Gene (PTTG) inhibits double-stranded DNA repair activity and induces genetic instability in colorectal cancer. Carcinogenesis28(3):749-59