Start date: 2024
Award: £113,513
Status: Active
What is this study about?
Cells are arranged in a particular way in a normal bowel wall and start to grow in a disorganised in the early stages of bowel cancer. This is due to confused chemical messages that the abnormal cells send out to each other. Early data from this research group shows there is a protein called periostin which is part of this confused messaging which helps trigger the start of bowel cancer development. They also think that cells with this protein may contribute to how bowel cancer spreads to other organs in the body.
What are the aims of this study?
This study team will investigate how cells containing periostin interact with immune cells to influence the spread of bowel cancer. They will analyse over 3,000 samples from bowel cancers to map these cells within tumours and learn more about how they relate to tumour behaviour.
Why is this research important?
Understanding the importance of altered cell communication in cancer development is key to identifying new ways to treat cancer and the hope is that this could lead to the development of new drug targets.
The research team
The PhD student for this study is Miss Amelia Ligeza, who is supervised by Professor Simon Leedham at the University of Oxford.