Congratulations to Dr. Pamela Hoodless (Hoodless Lab) for receiving the Canada Research Society & Canadian Liver Foundation grant, for the work titled, “Exploring epigenetic alteration in liver cancer at single cell resolution”.
More info: Liver cancer is on the rise. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) will be the third most prevalent cause of cancer mortality worldwide by 2030. HCC arises from chronic liver disease, although the progression from liver disease to cancer is poorly understood. In HCC, alterations to chromatin, the DNA-protein complex in the cell, allows genes to be abnormally activated. Activation of genes that are normally expressed in the embryonic liver are correlated with aggressive cancer and poor outcomes. Our goal is to analyze how the chromatin changes between Hepatitis B positive HCC, the adjacent non-cancerous tissue and normal adult and fetal liver. An understanding of the molecular underpinnings of HCC is necessary to explore better treatment options.