Definition and Validation of mesothelioma endotypes associated with treatment response and resistance based on multi-omic PREDICT-Meso data
Supervisors
Prof Kevin Blyth, School of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow
Prof Crispin Miller, School of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow
Prof Colin Semple, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh
Summary
Mesothelioma is an asbestos-driven cancer, with limited treatment options and a median survival of approximately 1 year. The UK currently has the highest global incidence of the disease, reflecting historical utilisation of asbestos in heavy industries and ongoing environmental exposures. Licensed mesothelioma therapies, including combination immunotherapy (IO) and chemotherapy, extend survival in some patients but the absence of reliable predictive biomarkers limits maximal deployment and precludes efficient recruitment of treatment-resistant patients into clinical trials. Development of precision medicine tools for mesothelioma is therefore a high clinical priority.
This project will define and externally validate mesothelioma endotypes associated with response and resistance to standard-of-care first-line IO and a range of clinical trial therapeutics. The project leverages extensive infrastructure provided by the Cancer Research UK-funded PREDICT-Meso International Accelerator Network (>150 investigators from >90 institutions in 16 countries). PREDICT-Meso has assembled unique human tissue, data and computing resources that are ideally suited to precision medicine research, including deeply phenotyped multi-region, longitudinal tissue biopsies (whole exome sequencing, bulk RNA seq and state-of-the-art spatial assays) and high-powered computing facilities. The student will join a rapidly expanding, multidisciplinary group of precision medicine researchers and benefit from the supportive training environment provided by the host labs, the PREDICT-Meso ecosystem and the CRUK Scotland Centre (Glasgow & Edinburgh).
There will be a Q&A Zoom call with Kevin about this Project.
If you wish to receive the Zoom Call information please email precisionmedicine-dtp@glasgow.ac.uk
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