University College London

Research Fellow – Dr Jonathan Kay

Dr Jonathan Kay is an important member of Dr Hayley Whitaker’s team at UCL.  They  have identified a protein, BI-010, that is raised in cholangiocarcinoma but not in inflammatory cells or normal cells, and have produced large amounts of pure protein which will allow the development of a test to detect BI-010 in blood.

All of the preliminary work was using cholangiocarcinoma tissue that had been surgically removed. However, Dr Kay and the team are now working to develop a test to improve the speed and accuracy of cholangiocarcinoma diagnosis, so they will be testing BI-010 on biliary brushings that are normally used for diagnosis.

The team also think that BI-010 might have potential to be targeted as a treatment for cholangiocarcinoma using antibodies, just like Herceptin targets Her2 in breast cancer.  Some preliminary validation work is being done to confirm this exciting new arm of the project.

AMMF has supported this team in their BI-010 work in Cambridge, and now also at University College London.

The Whitaker Lab at UCL