Dr Nigel Davies
This profile is taken from the MRC Annual Review 09/10, Seven Ages, which borrows Shakespeare’s famous theme to show how MRC-funded research benefits everyone, at every stage of life.
MRC-funded clinical scientist at the University Hospital, Birmingham.
Nigel uses sophisticated imaging techniques to increase our understanding of childhood brain tumours.
A physicist by training, Nigel uses his knowledge of how the nuclei inside atoms behave to study brain tumours in children, using a technique called magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). The aim of this work is to help develop more focused diagnostics and treatments for cancer, as Nigel explains:
“Traditional cancer treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy kills tissue indiscriminately. So, it blasts the tumour but has all kinds of unpleasant side effects on the body. We’re working towards treatments which hit specific metabolic or genetic targets within each type of tumour – rather like a laser-guided missile which destroys the cancer and leaves healthy tissue unharmed.”
Tumour cells behave differently to healthy cells, and their metabolism – the chemical reactions inside all cells which generate energy – is also different. Measuring and analysing the by-products of tumour metabolism (metabolites) can help scientists to identify the type of tumour and even how quickly it is likely to grow and spread. The hallmark of some of these more aggressive tumours is a higher level of a metabolite, the amino acid glycine.
Nigel and his colleague, clinician Dr Andrew Peet, have discovered a new and more accurate way to pinpoint glycine levels inside brain tumours. The technique is non-invasive and can be carried out while children are having their routine brain scans. Scanning the brains of children with MRS and using a special computer programme to analyse the results, Nigel and Andrew were able to separate out the overlapping signals from glycine and other metabolites with a similar ‘fingerprint’.
“Using this technique we can identify the more aggressive tumours which need urgent treatment to keep them in check before they spread throughout the brain. In the long-term this might also shed light on a metabolic pathway in brain tumours which could be targeted with drugs,” explains Nigel.
The technique is now being tested in a larger group of patients throughout the country, and Nigel’s research was shortlisted for Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group McElwain Prize. So is Nigel glad he made the leap from physics to medical research?
“The best thing about this job is the feeling that what I’m doing could have an impact on real people’s lives in the future. Rather than just being interested in technology for technology’s sake, I’m using physics and technology to affect people’s lives at a very basic level.”
Published November 2010