Profiling the expression of active genes and adaptive immune receptors on cancer cells to develop a deeper understanding of paediatric cancer

Principal Advisor: Dr Zewen Kelvin Tuong

Research group: Computational immunology

Organisational unit: Child Health Research Centre, Frazer Institute

A cancer diagnosis at any age is upsetting, but felt more harshly when the patient is a young child who has only started out in life. Compared to adult cancer patients, the window of opportunity to help child cancer patients is especially short. We need to create an early warning system for paediatric cancers. Specialized immune cells known as T-cells and B-cells use specific receptors to recognize tumour antigens and fight cancerous cells. My lab's vision is to harness these cells and their receptors to enable early cancer detection and disease monitoring. These specific adaptive immune receptors are essential for all aspects of the T- and B-cell’s life cycle, serving as natural ‘time-keepers’ of the immune response against cancer progression. We will create bespoke computational algorithms to explore the properties that define how effective these immune cells are in childhood cancer, perform high resolution gene expression profiling at the single-cell level and develop highly advanced computer models that can be used to detect adaptive immune receptors that are targeted towards cancer. The projects will be largely dry-lab based and the candidates should expect to be working as part of a team together with leading groups in Australia as well as international collaborative networks (Cambridge, Sanger, UK). Available projects Evaluating machine learning models classifying cancer-specific pattern in children with cancer. Developing single-cell trajectory analysis methods for adaptive immune cells The projects will suit either an immunologist wanting to learn bioinformatics and/or a computer scientist who wants to apply their skills onto biological problems. MD students/clinicians who are keen to learn programming are also welcomed.