Andy Cassidy

Research Assistant

Areas of interest

General molecular biology, gene expression, cell based assays, in situ hybridization, bioinformatics, statistics.

Background

Andy Cassidy graduated from Swansea University in 1987 with a degree in microbiology and worked for several years as a research technician at Warwick and Manchester Universities before joining a small start up company set up by Leicester University (the company offered contract immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridisation services to biotech and pharmaceutical companies). He subsequently joined the pharmaceutical industry (AstraZeneca) in 1997 and spent 10 years in the Cancer & Infection Dept. as a Senior Scientist using transcriptomics to investigate tumour biology before moving into assays and High Content Screening. After leaving pharma, and prior to joining the LSTM, he completed a short post at Cancer Research UK (Cambridge) as a Senior Scientific Officer delivering an in situ hybridization service to the institute.

Research

Since joining the LSTM in 2013 he has been working as part of the Anti-Wolbachia (AWOL) consortium using high content analysis cell based assays to screen compound libraries for potential therapeutic agents to combat tropical filariasis.

Selected publications

  • Selected Publications

    di Pietro M, Lao-Sirieix P, Boyle S, Cassidy A, Castillo D, Saadi A, Eskeland R, Fitzgerald RC. Evidence for a functional role of epigenetically regulated midcluster HOXB genes in the development of Barrett esophagus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jun 5;109(23):9077-82.

    Dry JR, Pavey S, Pratilas CA, Harbron C, Runswick S, Hodgson D, Chresta C, McCormack R, Byrne N, Cockerill M, Graham A, Beran G, Cassidy A, Haggerty C, Brown H, Ellison G, Dering J, Taylor BS, Stark M, Bonazzi V, Ravishankar S, Packer L, Xing F, Solit DB, Finn RS, Rosen N, Hayward NK, French T, Smith PD. Transcriptional pathway signatures predict MEK addiction and response to selumetinib (AZD6244). Cancer Res. 2010 Mar 15;70(6):2264-73.

    Hickinson DM, Marshall GB, Beran GJ, Varella-Garcia M, Mills EA, South MC, Cassidy AM, Acheson KL, McWalter G, McCormack RM, Bunn PA, French T, Graham A, Holloway BR, Hirsch FR, Speake G. Identification of biomarkers in human head and neck tumor cell lines that predict for in vitro sensitivity to gefitinib. Clin Transl Sci. 2009 Jun;2(3):183-92.

    Stransky N, Vallot C, Reyal F, Bernard-Pierrot I, de Medina SG, Segraves R, de Rycke Y, Elvin P, Cassidy A, Spraggon C, Graham A, Southgate J, Asselain B, Allory Y, Abbou CC, Albertson DG, Thiery JP, Chopin DK, Pinkel D, Radvanyi F. Regional copy number-independent deregulation of transcription in cancer. Nat Genet. 2006 Dec;38(12):1386-96.

    Reyal F, Stransky N, Bernard-Pierrot I, Vincent-Salomon A, de Rycke Y, Elvin P, Cassidy A, Graham A, Spraggon C, Désille Y, Fourquet A, Nos C, Pouillart P, Magdelénat H, Stoppa-Lyonnet D, Couturier J, Sigal-Zafrani B, Asselain B, Sastre-Garau X, Delattre O, Thiery JP, Radvanyi F. Visualizing chromosomes as transcriptome correlation maps: evidence of chromosomal domains containing co-expressed genes--a study of 130 invasive ductal breast carcinomas. Cancer Res. 2005 Feb 15;65(4):1376-83.

    Bernard-Pierrot I, Ricol D, Cassidy A, Graham A, Elvin P, Caillault A, Lair S, Broët P, Thiery JP, Radvanyi F. Inhibition of human bladder tumour cell growth by fibroblast growth factor receptor 2b is independent of its kinase activity. Involvement of the carboxy-terminal region of the receptor. Oncogene. 2004 Dec 9;23(57):9201-11.