Dr Anne Savage

Contact info

a.savage@abertay.ac.uk

+44 (0)1382 30 8139

Biography

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) (1987) Dept of Pharmacolgy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ
Ph.D. (1990) Dept of Biochemistry, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB2 1QW
PgD (1995) Analytical Chemistry, Glasgow Caledonian University
Diploma in Computing Science (2000) Open University
PG.Cert (H.E) (2012) Abertay University and Dundee University
Diploma in Statistics (Due to complete June 2013) Open University

Daphne Jackson Fellowship (EPSRC funded). (Sept 2009-Sept 2011)

Centre for Research in Systems Pathology University of Abertay Dundee. Predicting length of stay in NHS acute wards from previous admission records. A modelling approach using data visualization.

Career break (1999 – 2009) Freelance programming, data analysis and publishing contracts

Post-Doctoral Researcher (1995-1998) Caledonian Environment Centre, Glasgow Caledonian University.

Post-Doctoral Researcher (1992-1994) Dept of Biochemistry, University of Glasgow.

Wellcome Trust Travel Fellowship (1990-1991) Dept of Pharmacology and Endocrinology, CNRS-INSERM, Montpellier, France.

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Teaching
Research

Currently, I teach pharmacology on the following modules:

HS0907A; HS0917A; HS0916A; HS1006; HS0902

and statistics on these modules

FC0701A; BI0806A and FS0951A.

I also help out on BI0701A, BI0803A and BI0804A.

Interests

My research involves the use of image analysis techniques to relate morphological changes in breast cancer to disease classification and progress. This work is carried out in collaboration with Breakthrough Research Unit at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh.

In cancer, morphological assessment of histological tissue samples is key to both diagnosis and prognosis. Traditional methods of analysing histological images introduce a degree of subjectivity to the assessment but image analysis techniques are able to support these

assessments through quantitative metrics of morphology. Generally, morphometric analysis is implemented on two-dimensional tissue sections data but this only represents a small fraction the tumour. Recent work carried out in collaboration with the Breakthrough research Unit, Edinburgh developed a novel application of three-dimensional (3D) morphometrics for 3D imaging data obtained from tumours grown in a culture model. Minkowski functionals, a set of measures that characterise geometry and topology in ndimensional space were used to quantify tumour topology in the absence of and in response to therapeutic intervention(i.e. tamoxifen). The HER2 status of a tumour was found to predict the changes in morphological measures other than volume as a result of tamoxifen treatment ex vivo. In this study, we also demonstrated that Minkowski functionals may also be useful in predicting tumour grade.

http://dmm.biologists.org/content/early/2012/08/09/dmm.009886.abstract

Current work on 2-D images focuses on the morphology of breast cancer spheroids and the development of a range of measures derived from image analysis techniques that may be capable of discriminating between hormone receptor status and drug efficacy.

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