Ken Mills

Professor

Phone+44 (0)28 9097 2786, +44 (0)28 9097 2136
Emailk.mills@qub.ac.uk

Room 0G.011 - CCRCB
United Kingdom

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

There are opportunities to investigate molecular mechanisms in myeloid blood cancers including epigenetic alterations, DNA repair deficiency, altered signal pathways to identify therapeutic targets for novel agents or repurposed drugs using drug screens and/or NGS technologies to improve patient outcomes.

Research output per year

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Personal profile

Interests

My interests are in translational research in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) with the aim of improving diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of therapeutic responses.

Research Statement

The molecular and cytogenetic abnormalities in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) and Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) are increasingly well defined and these are being implicated in stratification for diagnosis and prognosis.

We have a series of studies being undertaken to identify repurposed therapies to target different sub-groups of adult and paediatric AML; the MuSICAL and the CaUSAL are funded by Leuka

Alongside these, are studies introducing clinically relevant mutations using the CRISPR-Cas mechanism to produce isogenic cell lines to further understand the molecular disruption caused by the mutation. Our recent direction of research has involved investigating the role of DNA repair in sub-cohorts of MDS and AML supported with grants from the LLNI, Leuka and MDS UK

Several studies are being undertaken in collaboration with previous members of the EU funded COST Action on translating genomic and epigenetic studies of MDS and AML (EuGESMA) with partners in 22 countries including Spain, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Serbia and Finland.

Current funding is from the Leukaemia & Lymphoma NI (LLNI), Leuka, , Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG)/Little Princess Trust, MDS UK and the Department of Education and Learning (DEL) and with recent funding from Cancer Research UK, Myeloma UK, Bloodwise, Queen's University Belfast, Cancer Research UK, and the R&D Division of the NI HSC. The laboratory is an associated member of the IMI2 funded HARMONY project and a full partner in a recently (2019) awarded Erasmus Plus Knowledge Exchange Network (Nehmesis)

Teaching

Acting Deputy Director: Centre for Biomedical Science Education

Associate Director for Undergraduate Teaching (CCRCB)

Coordinator for the CCRCB Summer School Programme

Module coordinator for Molecular Markers of Disease (BMS3104)

Module coordinator for Pathobiology (BMS2023) and Cellular & Molecular Haematology (BMS3009)

Teaching contributions to BMS2023, BMS 2106, BMS3009, BMS3104

Module coordinator for SCM81821 and SCM7046 within both the MSc in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics and the MSc in Molecular Pathology

Achievements

Chair of the Northern Ireland council of the Royal College of Pathologists (2016-2019)

Member of the Manx Health and Bioscience Advisory Board (2017-2019)

REF Advisor for the School of Health Sciences, Liverpool Hope University (2016-2018)

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Projects

1 Finished
8 Active

R2569CNR: Targeting DNA Damage Repair Deficiency in AML

Mills, K. & Savage, K.

26/02/2019 → …

Project: Research

R2557CNR: Identifying Combination Therapies Targeting Apoptosis Pathways in Paediatric AML (CAuSAL study)

Mills, K. & Lappin, K.

11/02/2019 → …

Project: Research

R2548CNR: LLNI Studentship 2019

Mills, K. & McCloskey, K.

14/12/2018 → …

Project: Research

R2516CNR: Facing the MuSIC - identification of synergistic repurposed drug combinations as novel therapies in paediatric acute myeloid leukaemia

Mills, K.

30/07/2018 → …

Project: Research

R2452CNR: LLNI PhD studentship

Crawford, L. & Mills, K.

08/01/2018 → …

Project: Research

Research Output

104 Article
12 Meeting abstract
5 Review article
3 Abstract
10 More

Validation of Next Generation Sequencing Technologies in Comparison to Current Diagnostic Gold Standards for BRAF, EGFR and KRAS Mutational Analysis

McCourt, C. M., McArt, D. G., Mills, K., Catherwood, M. A., Maxwell, P., Waugh, D. J., Hamilton, P., O'Sullivan, J. M. & Salto-Tellez, M., 26 Jul 2013, In : PLoS ONE. 8, 7, 10 p., e69604.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Open Access

File

77 Citations (Scopus)

269 Downloads (Pure)

Oncogenic roles of PRL-3 in FLT3-ITD induced acute myeloid leukaemia

Park, J. E., Yuen, H. F., Zhou, J. B., Al-Aidaroos, A. Q. O., Guo, K., Valk, P. J., Zhang, S. D., Chng, W. J., Hong, C. W., Mills, K. & Zeng, Q., 03 Sep 2013, In : EMBO Molecular Medicine. 5, 9, p. 1351-1366

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Open Access

File

33 Citations (Scopus)

241 Downloads (Pure)

Genome-wide profiling of methylation identifies novel targets with aberrant hyper-methylation and reduced expression in low-risk myelodysplastic syndromes

Del Rey, B. M., O'Hagan, K., Dellett, M., Aibar, S., Colyer, H. A. A., Alonso, M. E., Díez-Campelo, M., Armstrong, R. N., Sharpe, D. J., Gutiérrez, N. C., García, J. L., De Las Rivas, J., Mills, K. I. & Hernández-Rivas, J. M., 01 Mar 2013, In : Leukemia. 27, 3, p. 610-618

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Open Access

File

27 Citations (Scopus)

276 Downloads (Pure)

Molecular similarity between myelodysplastic form of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and refractory anemia with ring sideroblasts

Gelsi-Boyer, V., Cervera, N., Bertucci, F., Brecqueville, M., Finetti, P., Murati, A., Arnoulet, C., Mozziconacci, M. J., Mills, K. I., Cross, N. C. P., Vey, N. & Birnbaum, D., 01 Apr 2013, In : HAEMATOLOGICA. 98, 4, p. 576-583

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Open Access

File

7 Citations (Scopus)

249 Downloads (Pure)

High and low, but not intermediate, PRAME expression levels are poor prognostic markers in myelodysplastic syndrome at disease presentation

Liberante, F. G., Pellagatti, A., Boncheva, V., Bowen, D. T., Mills, K. I., Boultwood, J. & Guinn, B-A., 02 Jul 2013, In : British Journal of Haematology. 162, 2, p. 282-285

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

7 Citations (Scopus)