Professor Anthony Whetton

Stoller Biomarker Discovery Centre, University of Manchester   

Host: Prof Jonathan Blackburn [IBMS/IDM]

Professor Anthony Whetton has worked on the development of primitive hematopoietic cells into mature myeloid cells and how this process is affected by leukaemia-causing oncogenes for many years. In the recent past he has used a systems biology approach to address this issue which meant there was a need to establish mass spectrometry in the laboratory, for proteomics assessment of protein levels and post-translational modifications affected by leukaemogenic oncogenes. On moving to Christie Hospital site in 2003 he developed this research base for biomarker discovery and validation. This set of techniques can be applied to any biomedical or biological research project. This resulted in the award of £16 million from Medical Research Council to build the £25 million Stoller Biomarker Discovery Centre, the biggest clinical proteomics centre in the world, which he now directs. The Centre uses mass spectrometry and antibody based techniques with allied informatics and molecular pathology support to devise new algorithms and approaches for precision medicine.