Bioinformatician Torfinn Nome defending PhD thesis on deep RNA sequencing of colorectal cancer
On Thursday, November 28th, at 13:15, Torfinn Nome will defend his thesis "Novel RNA variants in colorectal cancer identified by deep sequencing" for the PhD degree.
Earlier the same day, at 10:15, his trial lecture will be given over the topic "Will deep sequencing and bioinformatics improve the success rate of translating cancer biomarkers to the clinic?".
Nome has performed his PhD in the Genome Biology Group at the Department of Cancer Prevention.
The thesis includes three papers identifying novel genetic aberrations in colorectal cancer by using deep sequencing technology. During the work of the thesis, protocols for massive parallel RNA sequencing were initiated and Nome was central in establishment of a high-performance computational infrastructure maintained to store and analyse the sequences generated by new in-house sequencing equipment as well as in setting up bioinformatics pipelines. Two of the three papers include discovery of novel fusion transcripts using this technology (Nome et al., Translational Oncology 2013). One of the important findings from the PhD work was the discovery of transcripts with novel exons which are not expressed in normal mucosa of the large bowel, but specifically in colorectal cancer (submitted).
Links:
Common fusion transcripts identified in colorectal cancer cell lines by high-throughput RNA sequencing.
Nome T, Thomassen GO, Bruun J, Ahlquist T, Bakken AC, Hoff AM, Rognum T, Nesbakken A, Lorenz S, Sun J, Barros-Silva JD, Lind GE, Myklebost O, Teixeira MR, Meza-Zepeda LA, Lothe RA, Skotheim RI.
Transl Oncol. 2013 Oct 1;6(5):546-53.