I'd be grateful if you could bring the following to your final-year students'
attention.
We have just had 2-3 PhD scholarships released which we were not expecting.
These have to ba applied for by May 31st, with a decision in June. The
scholarships cover fees + stipend (>#6,500) for three years.
I would like to put a candidate forward into this competition and am looking
for a potential graduate student who is interested in *either* tumour
immunology or cytokine immunogenetics.
Interested students should contact me immediately to discuss the projects and
applications.
THE TNF LOCUS IN COLORECTAL CANCER
We have recently shown that particular alleles at the TNF locus are associated
with colorectal cancer. This is particularly interesting because it suggests
that a genetic predisposition to high TNF production may be one of the factors
controling the development of this tumour type. However, this marker is some
distance from the TNF/LT genes and there are a number of new genes much closer
to it. The main thrusts of the project would firstly be to examine the TNF
locus for disruptions such as LOH or allele ampification in matched pairs of
colon cancer and normal tissue -- this will tell whether direct damage to the
TNF locus is important in tumour development. Secondly, to examine the
expression of these new genes in colorectal tumour tissue, adjacent normal
intestinal epithelium and tumour metastases -- this will tell us whether the
allelic segregation we have observed at the TNF locus is related to the
function of these new genes. It will also provide basic knowledge about the
immunobiology of these new genes. This project will be carried out in
collaboration with Groups in Edinburgh, Moscow and Heraklion.
IMMUNOSUPPRESSION IN HUMAN BREAST CANCER
We have recently identified two novel immuosuppressive proteins from human
breast cancer. These have a strong capability to prevent T-cell activation.
These proteins can readily be purified (SDS-PAGE, single band). The purpose
of this project will be to prepare antibodies to these proteins and use them
to stain breast cancer sections in order to determine their cellular source.
Furthermore, we shall use the antibodies to screen breast cancer-derive cDNA
expression libraries in order to identify, clone and sequence the cDNA.
This cDNA and the antibody together will be used to examine the expression of
the mRNA/proteins in relation to the development of breast cancer. This
project will be carried out in collaboration with group in Liverpool and Cork.
