Dr Luke Tattersall

BSc (Hons), PhD, FHEA.

Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Dr Luke Tattersall
Dr Luke Tattersall
Profile picture of Dr Luke Tattersall
l.tattersall@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 215 9214

Full contact details

Dr Luke Tattersall
Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health
Room DU10, D Floor
The Medical School
Beech Hill Road
Sheffield
S10 2RX
Profile

I graduated with a First Class honours degree in Biomedical Sciences with a year industrial placement in 2015 and completed my Bone Cancer Research Trust funded PhD, focusing on the role of purinergic signalling in osteosarcoma in 2019 with Prof Allie Gartland and Dr Shelly Lawson. During my PhD I received 3 awards from the Bone Research Society, carried out a travelling fellowship at the University of Ferrara Italy with Prof Elena Adinolfi, spoke about bone cancer on TV, contributed towards 3 publications and presented my results at conferences both nationally and internationally including as an invited speaker at the International Purine meeting in Brazil. I am now a post-doctoral researcher funded by Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony in the lab of Prof Allie Gartland continuing research into bone cancers. I have preclinical research experience with both in vitro and in vivo models (current UK home office licence) and ex vivo analysis. My most recent work focuses on high throughput drug screening/hit validation and overcoming chemotherapy resistance and metastasis to improve bone cancer patient outcomes in the future. I also achieved the advance HE FHEA award for teaching in 2021.

Research interests

I have been part of the Gartland Lab Group since 2015 (https://gartlandlab.com/). The principal research area of The Gartland Lab is in understanding the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for musculoskeletal disease and cancer. My specific research interests are in bone cancers such as osteosarcoma, Ewings sarcoma and chondrosarcoma. My current research is to test novel compounds (preclinical) identified from high throughput drug screening for their effect in bone cancer with an emphasis on overcoming chemoresistance and metastasis as these drastically reduce survival for bone cancer patients.  

A hallmark of osteosarcoma is the direct formation of immature bone through production of malignant osteoid (ectopic bone). This can be seen building up around the tibia and fibula in a characteristic sunburst spiculation.
Publications

Show: Featured publications All publications

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Tattersall L, Davison Z & Gartland A (2020) Osteosarcoma, Encyclopedia of Bone Biology (pp. 362-378). Elsevier RIS download Bibtex download

Website content

Preprints

All publications

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Tattersall L, Davison Z & Gartland A (2020) Osteosarcoma, Encyclopedia of Bone Biology (pp. 362-378). Elsevier RIS download Bibtex download

Conference proceedings papers

  • Tattersall L, De Marchi E, Williamson A, Di VF, Lawson MA, Adinolfi E & Gartland A (2018) P2X7R in primary bone cancer. PURINERGIC SIGNALLING, Vol. 14 (pp S13-S14) RIS download Bibtex download

Website content

Preprints

Grants

2016 – The Bone Research Society - Annual Meeting, Liverpool, Best Research Poster Award.

2017 – The Bone Research Society - Barbara Mawer Award-Investigating extracellular ATP in the tumour microenvironment of osteosarcoma using the plasma membrane-targeted luciferase (pmeLUC) probe.

2018 – The Bone Research Society Travel Bursary Award - International Purine Meeting ‘Basic and translational science on purinergic signalling and its components for a healthy and better world’ Foz Do Iguazu, Brazil.

2022 – COST, European Cooperation in Science and & Technology - P2X receptors as a therapeutic opportunity, Secondary applicant/working group member.

2022 – 2025 The Bone Cancer Research Trust - 'Preclinical validation of hit compounds to treat osteosarcoma' , A.Gartland, L.Tattersall, J. Stevenson & K.Rankin (£249,820).

Teaching activities

I supervise a range of students day to day within the lab including the SSC research attachments, MSc students (Translational Oncology & Molecular Medicine) and PhD students. I am also a thesis mentor for final year PhD students, and have completed both the associate supervisonaries and FHEA schemes for teaching. 

Professional activities and memberships

I regularly engage with our funding bodies including The Bone Cancer Research Trust (https://www.bcrt.org.uk/) and Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony (https://www.willberrywonderpony.org/) to disseminate our research findings to the patient community. I am also a member of various bone and cancer related organisations including the British Association for Cancer Research (BACR) the bone research society (BRS) and the Cancer and Bone Society (CABS).  

Outreach & public engagement

Researcher Live 'Strides in Cancer Research’ Preclinical bone cancer research webinar:
https://www.researcher-app.com/paper/10930715

ThermoFisher Scientific Gibco cell culture hero webinar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMbgUUm5hWA

Sheffield TV Live interview:
https://web.sheffieldlive.org/sheffield-students-join-bone-cancer-awareness-campaign/

Bone Cancer Research Trust magazine interview:
https://www.bcrt.org.uk/news/2018/february/luke-tells-us-about-a-day-in-a-lab-and-why-funding-is-important

University of Sheffield interview:
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/medicine/students/luke

Bone Cancer Research Trust Press Release:
https://www.bcrt.org.uk/news/2022/february/new-target-found-for-osteosarcoma 

Osteosarcoma now blog:
https://osteosarcomanow.org/understanding-how-osteosarcoma-spreads/

Revolutionary new bone cancer drug could save children's lives:
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/revolutionary-new-bone-cancer-drug-could-save-childrens-lives