High throughput sequencing of cancer transcriptomes to discover new oncogenic viruses

Lead Applicant

Professor G. Eric Blair

Project Summary

Viruses are currently associated with 10-20% of human cancers, the most notable being the link between human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer. Developments in high-throughput sequencing make it possible to identify novel viruses in tumour samples and a new human polyomavirus associated with Merkel cell carcinoma was identified last year.  The expectation is that more human cancers will have a viral aetiology and that these are discoverable using this new technology. The group have internationally-recognised expertise in HPV-associated malignancies (GEB and GPC), bioinformatics (DW) and high-throughput sequencing (GT), and aim to use this funding in a proof of concept study (using HPV transformed cells), to overcome a bottleneck in technology and show that we can use high-throughput sequencing to detect viral transcripts at low copy numbers (PCR cannot be used when the tumour associated virus is unknown).  Furthermore, cDNA sequencing will reveal mutations in cellular transcripts which are currently poorly defined in cervical cancer, identifying potential drug targets.