Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2010

Mentor: Michael White
Department: Cell Biology
Room number: K2.234
a) Mail Code: 9039
Phone number: 8-2861
E-mail: Michael.white@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: Identification and functional characterization of the somatic mutations in a non-small cell lung cancer patient by massively parallel sequencing of the transcriptomes.

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): NA

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): NA

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects) Basic research

Brief Description of Project:
With the emergence of massively parallel sequencing technology, increasing numbers of cancer genomes have been decoded. However, the functional significance of the discovered somatic mutations in the disease evolution is largely unknown. Recently, we generated millions of short read mRNA sequences for the entire transcriptome of an isogenic pair of cancer and normal cell lines isolated from a single lung cancer patient. At the same time, hypomorphic effects on cell viability have been assayed for this pair using siRNA based targeting of each gene in the genome. The goal of this project is to dissect the functional significance of the somatic mutations on cancer survival. Specific aim 1 is to discover somatic mutations present in the cancer genome by analyzing 100 million of the sequencing reads. Specific aim 2 is to intersect the somatic mutations from aim 1 to the functional genomics data set to capture the functional mutations. This project is 100% in-silico and represents a high-impact novel approach. Hannah is a great fit for this project since she has solid background in mathematics and intends to build her research career in bioinformatics.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students: Yes