Adrian graduated with first class honours from the University of Leeds in 1997 before moving to London to study for a PhD at Kings College in Professor Michael Marber’s laboratory at the Department of Cardiology. Following his PhD, Adrian moved to the Protein Phosphorylation laboratory at CRUK’s London Research Institute (headed by Professor Peter Parker), where he first became fascinated by the process of cell division. He subsequently moved to UMC Utrecht, in The Netherlands, to study the role of protein kinases during mitosis in the lab of Professor Geert Kops. Adrian relocated back to the UK in March 2013 to set up his own lab in Dundee studying the spatial regulation of mitotic signalling networks.

I am currently module lead for Cancer Biology (a 4th year undergraduate honours module). I also teach on other 3rd and 4th year undergraduate modules, as well as on the BMSc and MSci postgraduate courses.

In the lab we address fundamental questions about chromosome segregation and the cell cycle in an effort to understand why this process goes wrong so frequently in tumour cells. We also focus on some basic cell signalling concepts that have widespread implications outside of cell division. In particular, we aim to uncover how kinases and phosphatases work together to control signal responses. This is important because this "signal integration" allows binary switch like responses to control complex biological outputs.
We are also investigating the mechanisms of action of some widely used anti-cancer drugs that target the cell cycle. The aim is to use this information to better guide personalised patient treatment. 
We use a range of approaches to tackle these problems, including quantitiative cell biology, synthetic biology, biochemistry and computation modelling. However, much of our day to day work involves single cell assays and microscopy.
For further information including an up-to-date list of project please visit: www.SaurinLab.com