Scientific Director of CR-UK convergence science centre at the Institute of Cancer Research & Imperial College London
Axel Behrens is the director of the convergence science centre, an innovative partnership between Imperial College, the Institute of Cancer Research, and Cancer Research UK with a mission to bring together engineering, physical sciences, life sciences and medicine to develop innovative ways to address challenges in cancer research to benefit cancer patients (https://www.convergencesciencecentre.ac.uk/).
He is also a senior team leader at the Institute of Cancer Research and full professor at Imperial College London (https://www.icr.ac.uk/our-research/researchers-and-teams/professor-axel-behrens), and Honorary Professor at London University College (KCL) and Sun-Yat-Sen University (Shenzhen, China).
He received his PhD degree in Molecular Genetics from Vienna University and completed his postdoctoral training in the University Hospital in Zurich (Switzerland). A.B.'s lab focuses on the biology of stem cells and their function in cancer.
Molecular mechanisms controlling cellular heterogeneity of pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) shows pronounced epithelial and mesenchymal cancer cell populations. PDAC cellular heterogeneity is an important feature in disease subtype specification, but how distinct PDAC subpopulations interact, and the molecular mechanisms underlying PDAC cell fate decisions, are incompletely understood. Novel findings elucidating the molecular regulation of PDAC cellular heterogeneity will be discussed.