Spatially resolved analysis of immune-epithelial and immune-immune interactions in colonic adenomas and their association with pathological characteristics
Project Title: Spatially resolved analysis of immune-epithelial and immune-immune interactions in colonic adenomas and their association with pathological characteristics and future colorectal neoplasia risk
Supervisors
Dr Stephen McSorley, School of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow
Prof Joanne Edwards, School of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow
Prof Nigel Jamieson, School of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow
Summary
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK, often developing from benign polyps over many years. While polypectomy can prevent CRC, not all patients require ongoing surveillance. Current guidelines are inaccurate and place a significant burden on NHS endoscopy services.
This PhD studentship offers the opportunity to work with a globally unique cohort of 2,642 patients and their polyp which were removed during bowel screening colonoscopy as part of the INCISE (INtegrated TeChnologies for Improved Polyp SurveillancE) project. The student will work with data including digitised H&E slides, mIF and spatially resolved single cell RNA seq data. Using computational spatial biology pipelines, this project will examine the potential to create precision estimates of future colorectal lesion risk by investigating immune-immune and immune-epithelial interactions within polyps removed at bowel screening.
The student will gain interdisciplinary training in colorectal cancer biology, histopathology, and spatial biology. This work will contribute to more targeted surveillance strategies for bowel screening patients found to have pre-cancer polyps, and identify potential targets for future cancer prevention.
There will be a Q&A Zoom call with Stephen about this Project.
If you wish to receive the Zoom Call information please email precisionmedicine-dtp@glasgow.ac.uk
Remembering to put in the Subject line, the name of the Supervisor, this will allow us to send you the correct Zoom call information.