Professor David Thomas
Director and Division Head, Genomic Cancer Medicine Cancer Division, Garvan Institute of Medical Research
The Kinghorn Cancer Centre
Genomics and sarcomas
Cancer is essentially a genetic disease. Rapid developments in genomic technologies, coupled with reductions in costs, have facilitated the application of genomic tools to cancer biology and care. My research focuses on sarcomas, malignant tumours of connective tissues that particularly affect the young, but more broadly on rare cancers in general. I am interested in using genomic tools to understanding how sarcomas evolve and adapt under selective pressures. We are interested in defining the mechanisms that account for specific genomic patterns seen in some sarcomas, and in genomic plasticity in general. We are also interested in understanding the genetic determinants of differential cancer risk in the population. I will describe some of the approaches we have taken to addressing these questions in the course of my talk.