The microbial pangenome and its impact on colorectal cancer development​

Full project title: The microbial pangenome and its impact on colorectal cancer development

Duration: 2024-ongoing

Project lead for CBR: Dr James Robson

Other UWE Bristol researchers:

• Dr Dann Turner
• Dr David Qualtrough

Research partners/collaborators:

• Lee Parry
• Cardiff University
• Trevor Morris
• Public Health Wales 

Funder: UWE Bristol

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the UK. Worryingly, incidence is rising in younger individuals, meaning that diagnosis often occurs at a later stage, drastically impacting survival. Understanding the factors that promote colorectal carcinogenesis could be key to improving early detection methods.

The association between the gut microbiota and cancer risk has been long established, and several key microorganisms have been linked to oncogenesis. Currently, the majority of research is observational, and focuses solely on the presence or absence of key species (e.g. Fusobacterium nucleatum). This ignores significant variability within members of a single species. The carriage of a single virulence factor gene can significantly alter the role of a microbe in tumour development.

Through our partnership with the UK Anaerobe Reference Unit at Public Health Wales, we are able to source a wide variety of clinical strains for our research. We are employing hybrid sequencing approaches and analysing these organisms using a range of established bioinformatic pipelines. Once we have established which genes are more abundant to cancer-linked strains, we shall validate their function in in vivo co-culture experiments.

In future, we hope to inform the introduction of microbial screening into the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer.

For further information about the project, please contact Dr James Robson (james5.robson@uwe.ac.uk).