Van Loo lab Cancer Genomics Laboratory

Our lab uses changes in genetic information in cells to learn more about how cancer develops.

Cells are ultimately controlled by the genetic information they hold. Scientists call this information a cell’s genome.

We already know that the genome of a cancer cell is always different to the genome of a healthy cell. It accumulates changes that eventually lead to cancer.

Our lab looks at genome changes in many different types of cancer to learn more about the genetic changes that lead to tumours.

We have research tools that provide enormous quantities of data that detail precise genetic information about cancer cells. We can read the genetic history of tumour development by following changes in the genome of tumour cells.

This data can tell us a lot about how cancer develops and changes over the lifetime of a tumour.

As we learn more about the cancer genome our lab is beginning to focus on the next challenge – to understand how changes in the genome physically lead to cancer.

We use a research tool called massively parallel sequencing to pull out details of the genetic changes that can turn a cell from healthy to cancerous.