In her talk, Hira Javaid explores the effect of tumour heterogeneity on cancer development. Each cell in the human body contains 6 billion base pairs, with these DNA sequences combining to produce different proteins. Sometimes, sequence damage can cause mutations, which affect protein production and form cancerous tumours. Discussing this process, Hira Javaid highlights how early diagnosis can aid cancer treatment, facilitating intervention before cancer cells become too heterogeneous. She then notes how factors such as environment, lifestyle and diet can ‘tag’ onto DNA through the process of methylation, thus influencing subsequent protein production. This offers an exciting path for future research, allowing scientists to detect these tags within cancerous blood samples and aid diagnosis.

Did you enjoy watching this lecture? Explore more about this topic and the other taster lectures from this session in our Further Reading Booklet.