Epigenetic regulation of gene expression in tumour hypoxia

Regions of low oxygen (hypoxia) are frequently found in solid tumours. Clinically, hypoxia is associated with worse patient survival and resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Therefore developing new strategies to target the hypoxic microenvironment is critical for improving patient outcome. HIF1α and HIF2α are transcription factors that are stabilised in hypoxia leading to changes in key genes which trigger more aggressive growth, survival and metastasis, and contribute to the major hallmarks of cancer. Additional epigenetic regulations are required, for the transcriptional adaptations that occur in hypoxia this project aims to investigate these. This work will lead to novel approaches to targeting the hypoxic regions of solid tumours (in particular our work focuses on breast, colon and brain tumours, however other solid tumours are also relevant). 

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