Validation of novel combination treatments in lung cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths and the most common cancer in men and the 2nd most common cancer in women worldwide. Researching new targets in lung cancer is imperative in the quest for more effective therapies, personalized treatment strategies and ultimately, improved patient survival.

Our lab has combined stated-of-the-art transcriptomics, metabolomics and CRISPR drop-off screens in lung cancer models and identified novel synthetic vulnerabilities that can be targeted to specifically kill lung cancer cells. Importantly, these pathways can be targeted in vivo either pharmacologically or with dietary approaches, providing exciting novel approaches with great potential to be translated to the clinic.

This PhD project will characterise these new approaches and will generate novel patient derived lung cancer models to test them. The lab has strong links with lung cancer pathologists and surgeons and a well-stablished pipeline to obtain samples from patients. The project will provide outstanding training in the latest methods to study lung cancer biology and to generate patient-derived cancer models.

Diversity statement

Our research community thrives on the diversity of students and staff which helps to make the University of Dundee a UK university of choice for postgraduate research. We welcome applications from all talented individuals and are committed to widening access to those who have the ability and potential to benefit from higher education.