Paediatric Solid Tumour Biology and Therapeutics Group

Professor Louis Chesler’s group is investigating the genetic causes for the childhood cancers, neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma and rhabdomyosarcoma. 

Research, projects and publications in this group

Our group's aim is to improve the treatment and survival of children with neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma and rhabdomyosarcoma.

The goal of our laboratory is to improve the treatment and survival of children with neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma and rhabdomyosarcoma, three paediatric solid tumours in which high-risk patient cohorts can be defined by alterations in a single oncogene. We focus on the role of the MYCN oncogene, since aberrant expression of MYCNis very significantly associated with high-risk in all three diseases and implies that they may have a common cell-of-origin.

Elucidating the molecular signalling pathways that control expression of the MYCN oncoprotein and targeting these pathways with novel therapeutics is a major goal of the laboratory. We use a variety of innovative preclinical drug development platforms for this purpose.

Technologically, we focus on genetically engineered cancer models incorporating novel imaging (optical and fluorescent) modalities that can be used as markers to monitor disease progression and therapeutic response.

Our group has several key objectives:

  • Mechanistically dissect the role of the MYCN oncogene, and other key oncogenic driver genes in poor-outcome paediatric solid tumours (neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma).
  • Develop novel therapeutics targeting MYCN oncoproteins and other key oncogenic drivers
  • Develop improved genetic cancer models dually useful for studies of oncogenesis and preclinical development of novel therapeutics.
  • Use such models to develop and functionally validate optical imaging modalities useful as surrogate markers of tumour progression in paediatric cancer.

Professor Louis Chesler

Clinical Senior Lecturer/Group Leader:

Paediatric Solid Tumour Biology and Therapeutics Professor Louis Chesler (Profile pic)

Professor Louis Chesler is working to understand the biology of children’s cancers and use that information to discover and develop new personalised approaches to cancer treatment. His work focuses on improving the understanding of the role of the MYCN oncogene.

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Researchers in this group

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Email: [email protected]

Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 3437 6124

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Location: Sutton

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Location: Sutton

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Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 3437 3617

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Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 8722 4186

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Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 3437 3501

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Location: Sutton

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Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 8722 4361

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Location: Sutton

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Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 3437 6118

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Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 3437 6021

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Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 3437 6196

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Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 3437 6258

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Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 3437 6121

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Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 8722 4527

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Location: Sutton

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OrcID: 0000-0003-3977-7020

Phone: +44 20 3437 6109

Email: [email protected]

Location: Sutton

I obtained an MSci in Biochemistry from the University of Glasgow in 2018. In October 2018 I joined the labs of Dr Michael Hubank and Professor Andrea Sottoriva to investigate the use of liquid biopsy to monitor clonal frequency and emergence of resistance mutations in paediatric cancers.

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Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 3437 6358

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Location: Sutton

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Phone: +44 20 3437 6131

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Location: Sutton

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Location: Sutton

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Professor Louis Chesler's group have written 113 publications

Most recent new publication 1/2025

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Vacancies in this group

Working in this group

Head of Biology and Director, Centre for Target Validation (Group Leader)

  • Sutton
  • Cancer Therapeutics
  • Competitive Starting Salary
  • Permanent

Under the leadership of Dr Olivia Rossanese, we are seeking to appoint a Team Leader to join The Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery (CCDD) as The Head of Biology and Director of the Centre for Target Validation. Key Requirements The successful candidate must have in-depth knowledge and recent experience in an area of cancer biology relevant to oncology drug discovery. Leadership experience of drug discovery within, or in collaboration with, the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry as evidenced by publication and/or successful commercial projects. Along with completing the online application form, you will be asked to attach the following documents and failure to do so will mean your application cannot be considered on this occasion: · Full CV · Lists of major publications, achievements, research grants, distinctions. · A PDF of a maximum of five key publications, or other research outputs (e.g. patents) that best demonstrate previous productivity · You must also complete the personal statement section of the application form in the format of a covering letter including the names and contact details of three academic referees Department/Directorate Information: The Division of Cancer Therapeutic's mission is to develop personalised medicines by translating information from the cancer genome and cancer biology into drugs for patient benefit. We implement innovative drug discovery technologies, discover novel mechanism-based drugs, and develop these as rapidly as possible from the laboratory through to hypothesis-testing early clinical trials We encourage all applicants to access the job pack attached for more detailed information regarding this role. For an informal discussion regarding the role, please contact Dr Olivia Rossanese, Email [email protected]

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Human Resources Adviser

  • Sutton
  • Human Resources
  • from £41,000 per annum
  • Permanent

We currently have an exciting opportunity for a self-motivated and experienced HR Adviser to join our HR Operations team. Providing dedicated partnering with client departments, you’ll work closely with line managers to provide proactive and pragmatic advice and guidance on all aspects of people management, taking ownership of a busy employee relations caseload. You will also be responsible for supervising the work of our HR Administrative Team to ensure our monthly payroll input is submitted accurately and on time. You will work closely with other HR teams, including Recruitment, Systems and Information, and Learning and Organisational Development to ensure the provision of an effective, end to end HR service to Scientific and Professional Services teams across the ICR. Key Requirements You will have previous HR advisory experience, as well as a sound experience of managing employee relations cases end-to-end. You’ll need to be highly computer-literate, and have excellent attention to detail, with strong organisational and prioritisation skills to deliver effectively within a fast-paced environment. You will also have first-rate customer service skills to build and maintain collaborative relationships with colleagues across the organisation. Previous line management experience, and of managing small scale team restructures, including knowledge and understanding of TUPE processes would be a distinct advantage. Human Resources Directorate We know that talented, brilliant, passionate people lie at the heart of the ICR. That’s why we provide the policies, procedures, systems and people management infrastructure to recruit, retain, motivate and develop our people to achieve their full potential. We offer both operational and strategic support to teams across the ICR. We are organised across four main functions: HR Operations Learning and Organisational Development Pensions Reward, Information and Systems The ICR’s future success depends on recruiting the very best people with the very best skills and our HR strategy ensures that we have the organisational capacity and capability to deliver this. We encourage all applicants to access the job description pack attached for more detailed information regarding this role. For an informal discussion regarding the Sutton based role, please contact Karen Grieff via email on [email protected].

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Dr Giulio Caravagna - Postdoctoral Training Fellow

Employee Story

Postdoctoral Training Fellow (scientific role) Dr Giulio Caravagna is a Postdoctoral Training Fellow at The Institute of Cancer Research, working in Professor Andrea Sottoriva's Evolutionary Genomics and Modelling team, and jointly supervised by Professor Louis Chesler, Professor of Paediatric Solid Tumour Therapeutics.

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Industrial partnership opportunities with this group

Opportunity: A novel test for predicting future cancer risk in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Commissioner: Professor Trevor Graham

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Recent discoveries from this group

20/12/24

Sentinal4D's leadership team Georgia Mitsi, Chris Bakal and Matt de Vries

Image: Georgia Mitsi, Chris Bakal and Matt de Vries

Sentinal4D, a spinout company from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, has been announced to the public – having closed its first round of funding and appointed its foundational leadership team.

The highly innovative new company aims to accelerate drug discovery and development to target drugs to patients, powered via patented artificial intelligence-driven methods for personalised therapeutics, with a focus on oncology.

The know-how in Sentinal4D is built on years of data and expertise developed in the lab of Professor Chris Bakal at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and part-funded by Cancer Research UK. Professor Bakal is a world-leading expert in the role of cell shape in cancer and will be Sentinal4D’s Chief Scientific Officer.

Under the terms of the agreements with the ICR and Cancer Research Horizons, the ICR and Cancer Research Horizons received equity in the company and will be eligible to receive downstream payments and royalties on products and services.

Sentinal4D aims to eliminate the guesswork and expedite drug discovery by providing insights that will increase the chances of success in the subsequent phases of drug development.

The company’s approach involves high-throughput 3D imaging of cancer models pre- and post-therapeutic intervention, a proprietary AI-based 3D computer vision model, and integration with multimodal data.

Sentinal4D products offer a variety of predictions about response, efficacy and toxicity to potential new drugs in addition to which patient subsets might benefit the most from a certain drug or combination of drugs.

Funders supporting Sentinal4D at its launch include Twin Path Ventures, Arben Ventures and angel investors. Sentinal4D was recognised and supported by the Cancer Tech Accelerator, which was provided by Capital Enterprise and supported and funded by Capital Research UK, Cancer Research Horizons and the UK Research and Innovation Medical Research Council.

The company will be led by Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Georgia Mitsi, an experienced pharmaceutical executive with specific expertise in new technologies and innovation and a proven track record on partnerships. Dr Georgia Mitsi was instrumental in completing the tech transfer and closing the pre-seed round.

The team also includes Matt de Vries (co-founder and Chief Technology Officer), an entrepreneurial scientist with expertise in AI models who was trained in Professor Bakal’s laboratory.

Matt has developed sophisticated ‘Multiple Instance Learning’ models to analyse 3D shapes of cancer cells from both still images and videos. His work has been accepted in top computational conferences such as MICCAI and NeurIPS, and published in Cell Systems. Matt also won the Cancer Research Horizons Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2024 award for Early Career Entrepreneur of the Year.

Sentinal4D is the second spinout company to be announced by the ICR this year, and follows recent spinout successes including the foundation of Monte Rosa Therapeutics, which is now listed on New York’s NASDAQ stock exchange.

Research underpinning Sentinal4D’s foundation was supported by the ICR and funders including Cancer Research UK.

Dr Jon Wilkinson, Director of Business and Innovation at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:

“We’re excited to announce the formation of ICR spinout company Sentinal4D, which is taking a new and highly innovative approach in using 3D-imaging analysis powered by AI for precision therapeutics in oncology. Sentinal4D is the latest of several new spinout companies to emerge from our work at the ICR, as we continue to encourage scientists to found companies as part of the mix of what they do.”

Professor Chris Bakal, Professor of Dynamical Cell Systems at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and scientific co-founder of Sentinal4D, said:

“Sentinal4D brings together several strands of expertise we’ve been building in the lab for a number of years – including a deepening understanding of the role of cellular shape-shifting in cancer, innovative new methods of drug discovery, and AI-driven analysis of data including image data. We’re delighted to see it launch following a successful round of pre-seed funding.”

Dr Georgia Mitsi, CEO of Sentinal4D, said:

“For many years I have been working with start-ups and innovative technologies. Sentinal4D’s cutting-edge technology enables a new approach to drug discovery and development that could transform the traditional ways of working by adapting a biology-first, holistic strategy.

“Considering the poor success rates and challenges in drug development, we now have the opportunity to finally realise the vision for personalised therapeutics and bring effective treatments to patients faster, better and cheaper. With all the hype around AI, at Sentinal4D we strive to differentiate ourselves by emphasising that high quality, deep level data is the key to predictive modelling. I am looking forward to taking the company to the next level and start working with other innovative companies that share the same vision.”