Towards translating hepatocellular carcinoma cellular interactions into biomarkers

Principal Investigator: 

Dr. Charlotte Kiu Yan Ng, Oncogenomics Research Group, Department for Biomedical Research, University of Bern. For more information, please visit the website.

Cancer cells are constantly communicating with immune and other cells in their surroundings. How they communicate strongly influences how a tumor behaves. In Western countries, hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer, typically develops on a background of hepatitis C virus infection and/or fatty liver disease. In this project, we will combine the state-of-the-art single-cell RNA-sequencing and spatial transcriptomics technologies to answer the question if liver cancers with different underlying liver diseases show differences in their cell-to-cell communication networks. The results may reveal cellular interactions that may be exploited for therapeutic purposes.