MSc by Research Programme: Investigating the tumor suppressor functions of chromatin remodelling

This course allows you to work alongside our world renowned experts from the School of Life Sciences and gain a ’real research’ experience. You will have the opportunity to select a research project from a variety of thematic areas of research.

You will be part of our collaborative working environment and have access to outstanding shared facilities such as microscopy and proteomics. Throughout your year, you will develop an advanced level of knowledge on your topic of interest as well as the ability to perform independent research in the topic area. Alongside basic science training in experimental design, data handling and research ethics, we will help you to develop skills in critical assessment and communication. This will be supported by workshops in scientific writing, presentation skills, ethics, laboratory safety, statistics, public engagement and optional applied bioinformatics.

The period of study is one year full-time or two years part-time research, which includes two months to write up the thesis. Please apply via the UCAS postgraduate application form: https://digital.ucas.com/courses/details?coursePrimaryId=c735d826-42b6-ca1f-50db-2a3ac6f68718


One of the unanticipated outcomes of population based genome sequencing has been the finding that genes involved in the regulation of many genes are mutated at high frequency in tissue specific cancers. This is the case for SWI/SNF –related chromatin remodelling enzymes which are mutated in about 20% of all tumors and at higher frequencies in cancers of specific tissues. To understand how these genes function we have engineered cell lines in which specific subunits of these enzymes can be degraded rapidly and specifically. In this project, chromatin immunoprecipitation and RNA sequencing will be used to gain insight into how these complexes function. In the long run characterising these pathways will provide new routes for the development of cancer therapies.