2017 Participants
Sheng Zheng Lim
Cancer remains the second leading cause of death with 8.4 million deaths worldwide in 2012 despite the major progress made in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms of cancer development and progression is vital.
Meiosis is a type of cell division that reduces the number of genetic materials in the parent cell by half and produces four sperm cells or one egg. I am interested in a protein complex that forms during meiosis. For my summer project, I aimed to show that changes in these meiotic complex forming proteins observed in cancer patients are surprisingly common. I analysed publicly available data collected from cancer patients all over the world. Survival analysis in cancer patients with genetic in these proteins was performed. Analysis of publicly available datasets indicates that meiotic protein might be expressed and play a role in cancer development and biology.
Funding source: Newcastle University
Supervisor: Dr Owen Davies