Project 1 : Molecular archaeology: deciphering cancer’s evolutionary history from its genome sequence

This 4-year Crick PhD studentship is offered in Dr Peter Van Loo's Cancer Genomics Group based at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute (LRI). Two positions are available to join the group in September 2015, this is position 1 of 2. The successful applicant will join the Crick PhD Programme in September 2015.

Cancer is caused by somatic changes to the genome. Breakthrough sequencing technologies now enable us to compare the genomes of cancer cells to those of normal cells to base-pair resolution and allow us in theory to identify all somatic changes in a cancer genome. As genomic changes occur throughout a tumour’s lifetime, a cancer’s genome also contains within it an archaeological record of its past, providing a unique view of the tumour’s evolutionary history. For example, if a certain parental chromosome has acquired an extra copy, some point mutations can generally be found on both copies - these have occurred before the copy number gain. Other point mutations on that chromosome will occur on one copy only – those have occurred after the copy number gain. A third class of mutations will be present in only a fraction of tumour cells (that is, in less than one copy on average) – these are subclonal mutations that have occurred after both series of mutations above. Such “molecular archaeology” approaches allow one to determine a tumour’s life history based on its genome sequence.
In this project, the successful candidate will develop such molecular archaeology approaches, and apply them to obtain detailed timelines of cancer development across thousands of cancers. Complementary to this, the student will be involved in smaller-scale collaborative studies of tumour bulk sequencing, in combination with single-cell and multi-sample sequencing of primary tumours, metastases and circulating and disseminated tumour cells, aiming to gain insight into tumour evolution and metastasis.
This position is suitable for a statistician with a strong interest in biology, a computational biologist, or a biologist with a talent for computational analyses and a good statistical background.

Talented and motivated students passionate about doing research are invited to apply for this PhD position. Students who join the 2015 Crick PhD Programme, will start their PhDs at the LRI in September 2015, will register for their PhD at one of the Crick partner universities (Imperial College London, King's College London or University College London), and will transfer into the Crick with their research group in early 2016.

Applicants should hold or expect to gain a first/upper second-class honours degree or equivalent in a relevant subject and have appropriate research experience as part of, or outside of, a university degree course and/or a Masters degree in a relevant subject.
APPLICATIONS MUST BE MADE ONLINE VIA OUR WEBSITE BY 5PM GMT NOVEMBER 12TH 2014. APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED IN ANY OTHER FORMAT.
http://www.london-research-institute.org.uk/phd/