How do tumours heal in response to acute injury and chemotherapy?
Supervisors
Dr Andrew Davidson, School of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow
Prof Ross Cagan, School of Cancer Sciences, University of Glasgow
Prof Will Wood, Centre for Inflammation research, University of Edinburgh
Summary
In this PhD project, the prospective student will study how tumours respond to acute injury and chemotherapy, using a novel Drosophila tumour model developed by the Davidson lab that allows live, in vivo confocal imaging of tumour cell death and inflammation. Since tumours are often likened to "wounds that don't heal," this project asks how they heal after laser-induced wounding versus chemotherapy, including in sensitive versus resistant patient-derived tumour models. The student will quantify inflammation (cell death, macrophage recruitment, cytokines), regeneration (proliferation), and resolution (epithelial repair) after wounding, compare this to chemotherapy-induced death dynamics in resistant versus sensitive tumours and manipulate macrophages/cytokines to try to improve chemotherapy efficacy. Training will include Drosophila genetics, confocal live-imaging, microinjection, use of biosensors, laser-ablation, image analysis, statistics, scientific communication, and collaborative "team science" across three labs — preparing the student for careers in academia or bioindustry.
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