People: Ken Smith, Imelda McGonnell

Lisa Pritchard is a postgraduate student working on a collaborative project between the Departments of Pathology and Pathogen Biology and Comparative Biomedical Sciences. Lisa's research, which is supervised by Professor Ken Smith and Dr Imelda McGonnell, compares the cellular changes in canine and feline mammary tumours in comparison to human breast cancer.

The work has identified the role of the myoepithelial cell within the mammary gland as critical to the development of benign versus malignant tumours. This research may enable the development of more targeted therapies for mammary tumours in dogs and cats.