Professor Michael Seckl

Qualifications and Personal History

Michael Seckl trained in medicine at UCL/UCLH gaining a BSc in immunology in 1983 and his MBBS in 1986. He then obtained his MRCP before entering specialist training in Medical Oncology between 1989-1995.

During this period he spent 3 years at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (London Research Institute; LRI) working on signal transduction in model and lung cancer cells and was awarded his PhD in 1995 (University of London). He was then appointed as a Senior Lecturer at Imperial College whilst working as a post-doctoral fellow at the LRI enabling a series of successful grant applications to support his on going work in lung cancer. His clinical appointment also linked him to the national trophoblastic disease service and so a second stream of research was established.

He became a Reader and FRCP in 2000 and Professor in 2002 and currently heads up Molecular Oncology with its associated Lung Cancer Research team. He is Director of the Charing Cross/ Imperial College Trophoblastic Disease Service  and supraregional tumour marker assay service. He is an international leader in trophoblastic disease, is president-elect of the international trophoblastic disease society (ISSTD.org), is a visiting Professor at Peking Union Medical College and serves on several editorial boards and grants committees.

He has chaired/organised many national and international meetings related to lung cancer, cell signalling and trophoblastic disease. His work is supported by CR-UK, MRC, EU-FP7, Dept of Health, industry and several other charities.   

 

Research Interests

• Translational Lung Cancer Biology: growth factors and cell signalling for chemoresistance and metastasis and development of novel therapies
•  Gestational Trophoblastic Disease: genetics, hCG assays and novel therapies
•  Germ Cell Tumours: development of new therapies in both men and women

 

National/International Committees/Editorial Boards

• Association of International Cancer Research:  Grants committee (since 2008)
•  Americal Association for Cancer Research – Editorial Board of Cancer Research (since 2009)
•  Founding Editor of American Journal of cancer Research (2009)
•  Cancer Research UK: New Agents Grants Committee (2005-2010)
• Medical Research Council, Clinical Training and Career Development Panel (since 2006)
• Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund:  Chair of grants committee (since 2008)
• Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) Oncology Section (Vice-president and past president and treasurer/secretary)
• International Society for the Study of Trophoblastic Disease (ISSTD): (President elect – past Secretary/treasurer, past editor)
• European Organisation for Treatment of Trophoblastic Disease (Founding board member)
• British Association of Cancer Research (BACR):  Executive committee (to Oct. 2009)
• Supraregional Assay Services:  Board member

Selected Publications

Seckl MJ, Malholland P, Bishop AE, Teale JD, Hales CN, Glaser M, Watkins S, Seckl JR (1999) Hypoglycaemic coma due to an insulin secreting small cell carcinoma of the cervix. New Engl J Med. 341; 733-736

Seckl MJ, Fisher RA, Salerno G, Rees H, Paradinas FJ, Foskett M, Newlands ES. (2000) Choriocarcinoma and partial hydatidiform moles. Lancet 356; 36-39

Pardo OE, Arcaro A, Salerno G, Tetley TD, Gout I, Seckl MJ. (2001).  Novel Cross talk between MEK and S6K2 in FGF-2 induced proliferation of SCLC cells. Oncogene 20(52); 7658-7667

Pardo OE, Arcaro A, Salerno G, Raguz S, Downward J, Seckl MJ. (2002).  Fibroblast growth factor-2 induces translational regulation of Bcl-X_L and Bcl-2 via a MEK dependent pathway: correlation with resistance to etoposide induced apoptosis. J Biol Chem 277(14):12040-6

Sebire NJ, Foskett M, Paradinas FJ, Fisher RA, Francis RJ, Short D, Newlands ES, Seckl MJ. (2002) Outcome of twin pregnancies with complete hydatidiform mole and healthy co-twin. Lancet Jun 22; 359(9324): 2165-6

Arcaro A, Khanzada UK, Vanhaesebroeck B, Tetley TD, Waterfield M, Seckl MJ. (2002). Two distinct phosphoinositide 3-kinases mediate polypeptide growth factor-stimulated PKB activation. EMBO J Oct 1;21 (19):5097-5108

Seckl MJ, Gillmore R, Foskett M, Sebire NJ, Rees H, Newlands. ES, (2004) Routine terminations of Pregnancy – Should we screen for Gestational Trophoblastic Neoplasia? Lancet Aug 21;364(9435):705-7

Palmieri C, Fisher RA, Sebire NJ, Lindsay I, Smith JR, McGluggage WG, Savage P, Seckl MJ (2005) Placental site trophoblastic tumour arising from a partial hydatidiform mole: the importance of b-hCG surveillance. Lancet 366; 688

Khanzada U, Pardo OE, Meier C, Downward J, Seckl MJ, Arcaro A. (2006) Potent inhibition of small cell lung cancer cell growth by simvastatin reveals selective functions of Ras isoforms in growth factor signalling. Oncogene  1-11

Pardo OE, Wellbrock C, Khanzada U, Aubert M, Parker PJ, Gout I, Marais R, Downward J, Seckl MJ (2006) FGF-2 protects small cell lung cancer cells from apoptosis through a complex involving BRaf, PKCe and p70^S6K2 EMBO J Jul 12;25(13):3078-88.

Murugaesu N, Schmid P, Dancey G, Agrawal R, Holden L , McNeish I, Savage PM, Newlands Es, Rustin GJS, Seckl MJ (2006) Malignant ovarian germ cell tumours: identification of novel prognostic markers and long-term outcome following multi-modality treatment. J Clin Oncol 24(30):4862-6

Arcaro A, Aubert M, Espinosa del Hierro MH, Khanzada U, Angelidou S, Tetley TD, Bitterman AG Frame MC, Seckl MJ. (2007) Critical role for lipid raft-associated Src kinases in activation of P13K-Akt signalling. Cell Signal  May; 19(5):1081-1092

Pfeffer PE, Sebire N, Lindsay I, McIndoe A, Lim A, Seckl MJ (2007) Fertility-sparing partial hysterectomy for placental-site trophoblastic tumour. Lancet Oncol Aug;8(8):744-6

Mitchell H, Seckl MJ (2007) Discrepancies between commercially available immunoassays in the detection of tumour-derived hCG.  Mol Cell Endocrinol. Jan 2;260-262:310-3.

Sebire N, Seckl MJ (2008) Gestational trophoblastic disease: current management of hydatidiform mole. BMJ. Aug 15;337:a1193.

Patten D, Lindsay I, Fisher R A, Sebire N, Savage PM, Seckl MJ (2008) Gestational choriocarcinoma mimicking a uterine adenocarcinoma J. Clin Oncol. 26:5126-7

Schmid P, Nagai Y, Agarwal R, Hancock BW, Savage PM, Sebire NJ, Lindsay I, Wells M, Fisher RA, Short D, Newlands ES, Wischnewsky MB, Seckl MJ (2009)  Prognostic markers and long-term outcome of placental-site trophoblastic tumours: a retrospective observational study. Lancet 374(9683):6-7

Marinov M, Ziogas A, Pardo OE, Tan LT, Lane HA, Lemoine NR, Zangemeister-Wttke U, Seckl MJ, Arcaro A (2009) AKT/mTOR pathway activation and Bcl-2 family proteins modulate the sensitivity of human small cell lung cancer cells to RAD001 (Everolimus). Clin Cancer Res. Feb 15;15(4):1277-87.

Wang C, Dixon P, Decordova S, Hodges M, Sebire N, Ozalp S, Fallahian M, Sensi A, Ashrafi F, Repiska V, Zhao J, Xiang Y, Savage P, Seckl M, Fisher R (2009)  Identification of 13 novel NLRP7 mutations in 20 families with recurrent hydatidiform mole; missense mutations cluster in the leucine rich region. J Med Genet. 46(8):569-75

Pardo OE, Latigo J, Jeffery RE, Nye E, Poulson R, Spenser-Dene B, Lemoine NR, Stamp GW, Aboagye E, Seckl MJ (2009) The FGFR inhibitor PD0173074 blocks SCLC growth in vitro and in vivo. Cancer Res 69(22):8645-51

Dhillon T, Mauri FA, Bellezza G, Cagini L, Barbareschi M, North BV, Seckl MJ (2010)  Over-expression of the Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR): a novel biomarker for poor survival in resected early stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.      J Thoracic Onc 102(5): 810-4

Goh ETH, Pardo OE; Michael N; Niewiarowski A‎; Totty N‎; Volkova D‎; Tsaneva IR, Seckl MJ, Gout I (2010) Involvement of heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein F in the regulation of cell proliferation via the mammalian target of rapamycin/S6 kinase 2 pathway. J Biol Chem 285(22):17065-76

Seckl MJ, Sebire NJ and Berkowitz R (2010) Gestational trophoblastic disease. Lancet 376(9742):717-29

Turner NC, Seckl MJ (2010)  A therapeutic target for smoking-associated lung cancer. Sci Transl Med. 2010 Dec 15;2(62):62ps56

LaraR, MauriF,  TaylorH, DeruaR,  ShiaA, GrayC, Nicols A,. ShinerRJ, SchofieldE, BatesPA, Waelkens E, DallmanM, LambJ, ZichaD, DownwardJ, SecklMJ, Pardo OE (2011) An siRNA screen identifies RSK1 as a key modulator of lung cancer metastasis. Oncogene 2011 (epub ahead of print)

Ramos do Carmo C, Lyons-Lewis J, Seckl MJ, Costa-Pereira A (2011) A novel requirement for Janus Kinases as mediators of drug resistance induced by fibroblast growth factor-2 in human cancer cells. PLoS One (In press)