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The aim of the Computational Biology team is to understand how individual bases in our genome predispose, alter and interact in normal and disease contexts.
Research
Identifying SETBP1 haploinsufficiency molecular pathways to improve patient diagnosis using induced pluripotent stem cells and neural disease modellingSETBP1 Haploinsufficiency Disorder (SETBD) is characterised by mild to moderate intellectual disability, speech and language impairment, mild motor developmental delay, behavioural issues, hypotonia, mild facial dysmorphisms, and vision impairment. Despite a clear link between SETBP1 mutations and neurodevelopmental disorders the precise role of SETBP1 in neural development remains elusive.
Research
CD4+ T cells drive an inflammatory, TNF-α/IFN-rich tumor microenvironment responsive to chemotherapyWhile chemotherapy remains the first-line treatment for many cancers, it is still unclear what distinguishes responders from non-responders. Here, we characterize the chemotherapy-responsive tumor microenvironment in mice, using RNA sequencing on tumors before and after cyclophosphamide, and compare the gene expression profiles of responders with progressors.
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Tumour draining lymph node-generated CD8 T cells play a role in controlling lung metastases after a primary tumour is removed but not when adjuvant immunotherapy is usedSurgical resection of cancer remains the frontline therapy for millions of patients annually, but post-operative recurrence is common, with a relapse rate of around 45% for non-small cell lung cancer. The tumour draining lymph nodes (dLN) are resected at the time of surgery for staging purposes, and this cannot be a null event for patient survival and future response to immune checkpoint blockade treatment. This project investigates cancer surgery, lymphadenectomy, onset of metastatic disease, and response to immunotherapy in a novel model that closely reflects the clinical setting. In a murine metastatic lung cancer model, primary subcutaneous tumours were resected with associated dLNs remaining intact, completely resected or partially resected.
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Adiposity associated DNA methylation signatures in adolescents are related to leptin and perinatal factorsEpigenetics links perinatal influences with later obesity. We identifed differentially methylated CpG (dmCpG) loci measured at 17 years associated with concurrent adiposity measures and examined whether these were associated with hsCRP, adipokines, and early life environmental factors. Genome-wide DNA methylation from 1192 Raine Study participants at 17 years, identified 29 dmCpGs associated with body mass index, 10 with waist circumference and 9 with subcutaneous fat thickness.
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A phenotype centric benchmark of variant prioritisation toolsWe hypothesised that the performance of variant prioriisation tools may vary by disease phenotype.
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Personalised analytics for rare disease diagnosticsHere we focus on the problem of prioritising variants with respect to the observed disease phenotype
People
Timo LassmannFeilman Fellow; Program Head, Precision Health and Team Lead, Computational Biology
Research
Promoter-level expression clustering identifies time development of transcriptional regulatory cascades initiated by ERBB receptors in breast cancer cellsThe analysis of CAGE (Cap Analysis of Gene Expression) time-courses has been applied to examine the dynamics of enhancer and promoter by sequentially...
Research
CAGE-defined promoter regions of the genes implicated in Rett SyndromeA comprehensive picture of the regulatory regions of the three genes involved in Rett Syndrome