Genetics Otago member, Dr Silke Neumann has received $250,000 from the Health Research Council’s Emerging Researcher First Grants for the project ‘Treating gastric cancer according to its biology’
Project Details:
Cancers originating from the same anatomical location often display distinct characteristics, which influence their interaction with the immune system, the success of treatments and patient survival. Gastric cancer, treated currently as one disease, displays two main histological forms. We have identified two genes encoding an immunoproteasome regulatory subunit, that impact stomach cancer survival in opposite ways in the two histological forms.
We will determine how these genes tip the balance between anti–tumour immunity and cancer progression and how exploiting these genes may improve patient outcomes in both types of gastric cancer. We will use a novel gene tagging technology to establish where in the cell immunoproteasome regulatory subunit genes and proteins are expressed and can be targeted therapeutically. Overall, our goal is to decipher the mechanism behind the opposing effects these genes play in cancer progression and how they could be exploited to improve survival from gastric cancer.
Read more on the University of Otago Bulletin Board
