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Contact Details

Phone
+64 3 479 7868
Email
nicola.bougen-zhukov@otago.ac.nz
Position
Research Fellow
Department
Department of Biochemistry
Qualifications
PhD
Research summary
Cancer genetics

Research

In September 2017 I joined the Cancer Genetics Laboratory, headed by Professor Parry Guilford. Here, I am on the team working towards new treatment strategies for hereditary and sporadic gastric cancers, specifically those cancers lacking E-cadherin expression. Our goal is to identify drugs which have a synthetic lethal relationship with E-cadherin mutations/silencing and specifically target cancer cells.

We use a variety of models to screen for new drugs, such as cells lines, organoids (mouse and human derived), and our own mouse models.? I am particularly interested in drug mediated modulation of AKT signalling E-cadherin negative cells.

Publications

Redpath, K., Vaessen, C., Decourtye-Espiard, L., Schulpen, E., Godwin, T., Bougen-Zhukov, N., McElroy, K., Black, M., & Guilford, P. (2023). Single-cell RNA-Seq reveals candidate synergistic treatments for the chemoprevention of hereditary diffuse gastric cancer. Proceedings of the Genetics Otago (GO) Annual Symposium & Workshops. Retrieved from https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/go Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Redpath, K. J., Bougen-Zhukov, N., Black, M. A., & Guilford, P. J. (2022). Identification and development of novel drug combinations for diffuse gastric cancer. Proceedings of the Genetics Otago (GO) Annual Symposium. Retrieved from https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/go Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Bougen-Zhukov, N., Decourtye-Espiard, L., Mitchell, W., Redpath, K., Perkinson, J., Godwin, T., Black, M. A., & Guilford, P. (2022). E-cadherin-deficient cells are sensitive to the multikinase inhibitor dasatinib. Cancers, 14, 1609. doi: 10.3390/cancers14071609 Journal - Research Article

Gullo, I., Oliveira, C., van der Post, R. S., van Dieren, J. M., Davis, J. L., Bougen-Zhukov, N., Guilford, P., & Carneiro, F. (2021). Updated perspective and directions on hereditary diffuse gastric cancer. In B. Jenkins (Ed.), Research and clinical applications of targeting gastric neoplasms. (pp. 217-258). London, UK: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-323-85563-1.00011-3 Chapter in Book - Research

Brew, T., Bougen-Zhukov, N., Mitchell, W., Decourtye, L., Schulpen, E., Nouri, Y., Godwin, T., & Guilford, P. (2021). Loss of E-cadherin leads to druggable vulnerabilities in sphingolipid metabolism and vesicle trafficking. Cancers, 14(1), 102. doi: 10.3390/ cancers14010102 Journal - Research Article

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