Mapping tumor epigenomic signatures in gliomas: correlating glioma stem cells with clinical and molecular data

• Grant number: 21/00283-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: February 01, 2021
• End date: April 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal Investigator: Tathiane Maistro Malta Pereira
• Grantee: Maycon Marção
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas de Ribeirão Preto (FCFRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 18/00583-0 - Integrative epigenomic analysis of gliomas: defining regulatory regions associated with stemness and with the hypermethylator phenotype of IDH1/2 mutant tumors, AP.JP
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/06678-8 - Mapping breast cancer malignancy using single cell transcriptomic data, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

This fellow will work on the identification of neural stem cell and cancer stem cell signatures in glioma samples. This person will use public data and open source R/bioconductor tools to map stem cell signatures that can be used to measure the de-differentiated state (or Stemness) of glioma specimens from its cell of origin. A DNA methylation signature of neural stem cells and glioma stem cells will be defined and using this signature a prediction model of Stemness will be constructed using DNA methylation data. Then the prediction model will be applied to glioma samples from the public database of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and others for the quantification of Stemness in tumors. The identification of glioma samples with stem cell signatures will contribute to the understanding of gliomagenesis, cell of origin and aggressiveness of gliomas. (AU)