Epigenetic mapping of immune cells in colorectal cancer

The success of cancer treatments that target the immune system has highlighted the importance of understanding the role of immune cells in cancer. Identifying which cells have infiltrated the tumour can be critical when selecting the correct immune therapy for individual patients.

I will generate a tool that can accurately identify the frequency of different immune cells in a tumour. I will generate a map of the DNA state of immune cells, which controls how genes in the immune cells are turned on or off and is specific to each immune cell. I will compare this with the DNA map of colorectal cancer tissues and use a computer-based algorithm to estimate the frequency of each immune cell within colorectal tumours.

The tool will aid the choice of immunotherapy and inform the development of novel therapies for cancer.