Department of Oncology

 

Basic Laboratory Research Themes in Oncology

Genomics

This research theme focuses on the study of an organism's entire genome (genetic material), including analysis of gene copy number; control of gene expression and generation of expression profiles; molecular classification of human and model organism cancers; discovery and validation of therapeutic targets; chromatin structure and chromosomal instability and cancer stem cell research.

One main area of genomic research involves sequencing the entire genomes of various organisms, such as human, mouse and Xenopus frog. Information generated from such whole genome sequencing projects has allowed scientists to identify patterns of gene expression in many tissues at various developmental stages and under different environmental conditions. This branch of genomic research, commonly known as functional genomics, provides an insight into gene regulation, cellular pathways and tissue organisation.

Rapid advances in both the development of instrumentation and computational tools now allows scientists to sequence and measure the expression of thousands of genes simultaneously. For example, microarray analysis is used to identify genes associated with different cancers, by comparing gene expression in normal cells with cancerous cells. These comparative microarray studies can be used to generate expression signatures for particular types of cancer, which have the potential to improve disease diagnosis, development of therapeutic treatments and understanding of the aetiology and pathogenesis of cancer.


The following research projects fall within this thematic: