Professor Alison Dunning
Websites
- CRUK Cambridge Centre: http://www.cambridgecancercentre.org.uk/users/adunning
- Department of Public Health & Primary Care: http://www.phpc.cam.ac.uk/people/centre-for-cancer-genetic-epidemiology-people/ccge-senior-research-staff/dr-alison-dunning/
Graduate Students
Dr Alison Dunning is pleased to consider applications from prospective graduate students.
Research Interests
Genome Wide Association Studies, Confirmation and Fine-Scale Mapping of discovered Loci.
Work in the Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology "wet lab" involves running very high throughput SNP-chip genotyping and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) studies. We search for genetic risk factors for both cancer susceptibility and treatment-response. In this we collaborate closely with:
- The international consortia for breast, ovarian, endometrial and prostate cancer association studies: BCAC http://bcac.ccge.medschl.cam.ac.uk (link is external), CIMBA http://apps.ccge.medschl.cam.ac.uk/consortia/cimba/ (link is external) and
- PRACTICAL http://practical.ccge.medschl.cam.ac.uk (link is external) as well as with the Radiogenomics Consortium (RGC http://epi.grants.cancer.gov/radiogenomics/ (link is external)).
We have been closely involved in the COGS http://www.cogseu.org and Oncoarray http://epi.grants.cancer.gov/oncoarray/ genotyping projects and recently with the EU-funded BRIDGES NGS project.
Publications
Pubmed journal articles - pubmed
Key publications
Dunning AM,* Michailidou K*, Kuchenbaecker KB*, Thompson D*, French JD*, Beesley J*, Healey CS*, Kar S, Pooley KA et al. Breast cancer risk variants at 6q25 display different phenotype associations and regulate ESR1, RMND1 and CCDC170. Nat Genet. 2016 Apr;48(4):374-86. doi: 0.1038/ng.3521. Epub 2016 Feb 29.
Ghoussaini M, Edwards SL, Michailidou K, Nord S, Cowper-Sal Lari R, Desai K, Kar S, et int. Pharoah PD, Chenevix-Trench G, French JD, Easton DF, Dunning AM; Australian Ovarian Cancer Management Group; Australian Ovarian Cancer Management Group. Evidence that breast cancer risk at the 2q35 locus is mediated through IGFBP5 regulation. Nat Commun. 2014 Sep 23;4:4999. doi: 10.1038/ncomms5999.
Fachal L, Gómez-Caamaño A, Barnett GC, Peleteiro P, Carballo AM, Calvo-Crespo P, Kerns SL, Sánchez-García M, Lobato-Busto R, Dorling L, Elliott RM, Dearnaley DP, Sydes MR, Hall E, Burnet NG, Carracedo A, Rosenstein BS, West CM, Dunning AM, Vega A. A three-stage genome-wide association study identifies a susceptibility locus for late radiotherapy toxicity at 2q24.1. Nat Genet.2014 Aug;46(8) 891-4.Epub Jun 29 2014. doi: 10.1038/ng.3020.
Edwards SL, Beesley J, French JD, Dunning AM. Beyond GWAS: Illuminating the dark road from association to function. Am J Hum Genet. 2013 Nov 7;93(5),779-797. doi: 0.1016/j.ajhg.2013.10.012. Review
Pooley KA*, Bojesen SE*, Nielsen SF, Thompson D, AlOlama AA, Michailidou k, Tyrer JP, Benlloch S, Brown J, Audley T, Luben R, Khaw KT, Neal, DE, Hamdy FC, Donovan JL, Kote-Jarai Z, Baynes C, Shah M, Bolla MK, Wang Q, Dennis J, Dicks E, Rongxi Y, Rudolf a, Schildkraut J, Chang-Claude J, Burwinkle B, Chenevix-Trench G, Pharoah PDP, Berchuck A, Eeles RA, Easton DF, Dunning AM*, Nordestgaard BG*. A genome wide association scan (GWAS) for mean telomere length within the COGS project: Identified loci show little association with hormone related cancer risk. Hum Mol Genet. 2013 dDec 15;22(24)5056-64 . Epub Jul 29 2013 doi:10.1093/hmg/ddt355.
Bojesen SE*, Pooley KA*, Johnatty SE*, Beesley J, Michailidou K, Tyrer JP, Edwards SL, Pickett HA, Shen HC, et int. Easton DF, Berchuck A, Antoniou AC, Chenevix-Trench G*, Dunning AM*. Multiple independent variants at the TERT locus are associated with telomere length and risks of breast and ovarian cancer. Nat. Genet. 45, 371-84. doi: 10.1038/ng.2566 2013
Barnett GC, Coles CE, Elliott RM, Baynes C, Luccarini C, Conroy D, Wilkinson JS, Tyrer J, Misra V, Platte R, Gulliford SL, Sydes MR, Hall E, Bentzen SM, Dearnaley DP, Burnet NG, Pharoah PD, Dunning AM, West CM. Independent validation of genes and polymorphisms reported to be associated with radiation toxicity: a prospective analysis study. Lancet Oncol.13, 65-77.2012 Epub 2011 Dec 12.
(*Joint first authors)