Recruiting beneficiary: Queen Mary University London, United Kingdom

Internal supervisors: Dr. Weini Huang, Dr. Dudley Stark

Brief project description: We will study how different mechanisms of resistance (e.g. genetic mutations, phenotypic/epigenetic changes, combination of both) in cancer cells impact patient treatment prospects and how we adjust treatment to maximise its  efficacy under these different mechanisms. This will be done via varying assumptions of existing game-theoretical models but including resistance as an evolving trait.  We will connect theoretical predictions with measurable quantities such as genetic composition of tumour cells in publically available cancer data, in order to reveal and quantify the impact of genetic and non-genetic mechanisms on resistance evolution.

Updates: Christo’s project on understanding the evolution of resistance in cancer using stochastic methods has begun from a theoretical front. Before including selection, Christo has been working on a neutral evolutionary model of mutation accumulation, with the plan to include resistance and treatment at a later stage. He has analytically studied distributions of these mutations in growing populations and will be connecting this theoretical work with both bulk and single cell data.

Selected contributions: 

Morison, C., Stark, D., & Huang, W. Single-cell mutational burden distributions in birth-death processes. (arXiv preprint, 2023).

Morison, C. (2023, January 24). Recurrence Relations for Single-Cell Burdens & Site Frequencies [Talk]. Integrated Mathematical Oncology Seminar. Tampa, US.

Morison, C. (2024, July 15). Cancer-immune coevolution dictated by antigenic mutation accumulation [Talk]. 9th Conference on Mathematical Models in Ecology and Evolution (MMEE 2024). Vienna, Austria.