Transcriptional control of cancer cell heterogeneity by MYC
Navn på bevillingshaver
Rasmus Siersbæk
Titel
Associate Professor
Institution
University of Southern Denmark
Beløb
DKK 7,000,000
År
2024
Bevillingstype
Semper Ardens: Accelerate
Hvad?
A major clinical challenge in cancer is the remarkable heterogeneity between cancer cells. This fuels cancer progression as it increases the risk that some cancer cells can withstand treatment or spread to other organs resulting in incurable disease. This project will investigate how our genes are regulated differently between individual cancer cells and how this impacts their properties.
Hvorfor?
Despite its clinical importance for patients, the mechanisms driving cancer cell heterogeneity are poorly understood. Understanding how the properties of individual cancer cells are regulated will allow us to identify key mechanisms driving treatment resistance and spread of the tumour to other organs that are not clear from average analyses of the entire cancer cell population.
Hvordan?
My group has developed a new single-cell method allowing us to investigate how proteins work together within individual cells. We will use this method to understand how the proteins controlling expression of our genes cooperate in different ways across individual cells to drive pro-tumorigenic properties such as treatment resistance and invasive potential.