My research interests include identification and validation of new genes involved in formation and progression of neoplasms, particularly colorectal cancer including inflammatory bowel disease-associated colorectal cancer and its precursor dysplastic lesions, gynaecological cancers, melanomas, other skin tumours, leukaemias, as well as other neoplasms. This involves analysis of human cancer samples, cultured cells and in vivo model systems using both comparative pathology, molecular pathology and digital/computational pathology approaches.
Carcinogenesis involves cellular transit from normal via precursor lesions to malignant neoplasms. These transitions are usually associated with characteristic genetic and epigenetic changes. In the bowel, these include alterations to APC (>80%), the DNA mismatch repair genes MLH1 & MSH2 (~15%), KRAS (~40%), and TP53 (~60%) amongst others, and these genes also influence the regulation of proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. In the endometrium, these include alterations to PTEN (80-90%), the DNA mismatch repair genes MLH1 & MSH2 (~30%), and KRAS (~20%), amongst others.