The I-DIMENSIONS Project: Integrated DMG genomIc Methylomic EpigeNetic Spatial transcrIptomic prOteomic subtypiNg System

Project Member(s): Gallego Ortega, D., Valdes Mora, F.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Charlie Teo Foundation (Charlie Teo Foundation Research Fellowship)
Charlie Teo Foundation (Charlie Teo Foundation Research Fellowship)

Start year: 2023

Summary: Over the last 15 years, the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate for children diagnosed with cancer has increased from 71% to 84%. However, for children diagnosed with paediatric high-grade gliomas (pHGG), including those localised to the midline of the central nervous system (such as diffuse midline glioma - (DMG)), survival is measured in months; 5-year survival is experienced by less than 1% of patients. Unfortunately, this approach has not improved survival of aggressive brain cancers such as DMG, but, the ZERO program has succeeded in generating critical, disease-specific genetic data. In this grant we propose to characterise the genetics of 210 pHGG samples, and uniquely, integrate the findings to create a ‘methylo-genomic’ tumour subtyping system. This multi-pronged subtyping will provide greater insight than the existing system that categorises tumours into one of only three subtypes and is not predictive of treatment response.

FOR Codes: Bioinformatics and computational biology, Cancer genetics, Paediatrics, Diagnosis of human diseases and conditions, Treatment of human diseases and conditions

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.