Elliot Trofimowicz

• Bsc (Hons) Biomedical Sciences
• The role of age related methylation as an underlying cause of the development of cancer

The main aims of my project were: to determine whether the relationship between increased age-related methylation in peripheral blood and cancer is age dependent or seen across all ages of cancer patients and whether increased age-related methylation in peripheral blood is restricted to patients with leukaemia or also seen in other haematological or non-haematological malignancies. I used pyrosequencing to analyse average methylation values in the genes HOXA4 and Twist2 in samples of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), Oesophageal and Liver cancer. I was able to show that average methylation increased in ALL and stayed fairly constant in Oesophageal and Liver cancers.

Project Supervisor: Dr Gordon Strathdee, Northern Institute for Cancer Research

Funding source: Newcastle University