A dedicated head and neck pathologist, Dr. Bell's research interest focuses on sinonasal and salivary gland tumors. The aim of her research is to find and apply new strategies and technologies to better understand key molecular changes during the pathogenesis of head and neck cancers, with emphasis on salivary gland and sinonasal tumors
Currently we involve microarray gene expression profiling technologies for whole genome RNA transcription to detect genes differentially transcribed in the above tumors. On DNA level we investigate epigenetic changes of the cancer genome, to find strongly deregulated genes by epigenetic CpG island methylation, involved in development and survival of these tumors (MCAM and pyrosequencing methodologies).The genes resulting from these studies are subjected to cluster, pathway and functional in silico analysis to select promising candidate genes for studies on protein level for molecular / biomarkers and for therapeutic targets. The resulting differentially expressed proteins will be further tested for their potential for biomarkers and targeted therapy.