Doktorander/Utbildningsplatser

Doktorander/Utbildningsplatser
med placering vid Sahlgrenska akademin

Sista ansökningsdag: 2010-04-20

Sahlgrenska akademin utlyser doktorandplatser med placering vid institutionen för biomedicin, institutionen för kliniska vetenskaper, institutionen för medicin och institutionen för neurovetenskap och fysiologi.

Doktorandplatserna avser två års utbildningsbidrag och två års doktorandanställning, alternativt fyra års doktorandanställning, och beräknas leda fram till doktorsexamen.

För mer information och ansökningsblankett se:
http://www.sahlgrenska.gu.se/doktorandportalen/Doktor_Fran_start_till_mal/doktorandplatser

Local inflammation in gastric cancer- mechanism for cancer development and biomarker for early gastric cancer?
Application deadline: 2010-04-20
Description of the research project
Stomach cancer is the most serious disease caused by Helicobacter pylori infection, and due to the large number of infected individuals throughout the world, it is a very big health problem.An important reason for the high number of deaths caused by stomach cancer is that the diagnosis is often late, due to diffuse symptoms.

In our studies we have recently shown that stomach cancer patients have high levels of several proinflammatory cytokines both in tumour tissue but also in the tissue distant to the tumour.Our preliminary data from a microarray experiment now show that certain of the cytokines are markedly increased in the cancer patients compared to H. pylori infected and uninfected patients without cancer.
In this project we will follow up and extend these studies, and investigate whether local or systemic levels of a combination of different cytokines may be used as biomarkers for early detection of stomach cancer.Furthermore, we expect that these studies will contribute to increased understanding of the mechanisms for development of stomach cancer due to H. pylori-infection.

Specific questions:
1.Which gene groups or gene clusters are activated/inhibited during gastric cancer development?
2.May signatures of local and/or systemic pro-inflammatory and regulatory cytokines be used as biomarkers of early gastric cancer?
3.Does an altered regulation of stimulatory and inhibitory cytokine receptors affect over-expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in gastric cancer patients?
4.Are polymorphisms of cytokine-related genes associated to cancer development?

Methods: The project will involve the use of advanced bioinformatic and systems biology methods to analyse array data, including cluster analysis and identification of enriched biological functions.Furthermore, a variety of immunological and molecular biology analyses will be used to detect cytokines, immune regulatory mediators and signalling molecules, as well as mRNA levels, in a different types of patient samples.

Importance: Since the mortality of gastric cancer is high, and the survival prognosis is improved substantially if treated by surgery at an early stage, clinically relevant biomarkers would increase survival dramatically by allowing an earlier diagnosis.The project will also give important information about the mechanisms of cancer development in H. pylori-infected individuals, which would be of importance for the development of future therapies.