Characterising a novel innate immune signalling pathway in tumour-associated macrophages by proteomics

免疫系统特别是肿瘤相关巨噬细胞已成为抗癌治疗的主要靶点（Yang et al, Cancer Res, 2018; Lapenna et al, Nature Rev immuno1, 2018）。这个令人兴奋的项目将使用尖端的蛋白质组学来表征巨噬细胞中一种新的先天免疫信号通路，并表征其在癌症中的作用。这可能为癌症治疗开辟新的途径。蛋白质组学是一种非常敏感的方法，可以识别和量化干细胞、癌症或免疫细胞等生物样本中的大量蛋白质，并通过允许对细胞事件进行全局分析，彻底改变了生物学。近年来，我们实验室成功开发了新的蛋白质组学方法，并将其应用于包括巨噬细胞生物学在内的各个领域（Hartlova等人，EMBO J, 2018； Miettinen等人，EMBO J, 2018； Trunk等人，Nature Microbiology, 2018）。在本项目中，您将学习并应用这项令人兴奋的技术来了解巨噬细胞中特定信号通路的作用及其在癌症中的作用。此外，您将有机会学习许多其他分子生物学，细胞生物学和生物化学技术，如Crispr Cas9敲除细胞系，免疫荧光显微镜和流式细胞术的产生。

The immune system and particularly tumour-associated macrophages have become the main target for anti-cancer therapy (Yang et al, Cancer Res, 2018; Lapenna et al, Nature Rev Immunol, 2018). This exciting project will use cutting-edge proteomics to characterise a novel innate immune signalling pathway in macrophages and characterise its role in cancer. This may open up new avenues for cancer treatment. Proteomics is a remarkably sensitive method to identify and quantify large numbers of proteins in biological samples such as stem cells, cancer or immune cells and has revolutionised biology by allowing global analysis of cellular events. Our lab has in recent years successfully developed novel proteomics methods and applied them in various areas of including macrophage biology (Hartlova et al, EMBO J, 2018; Miettinen et al, EMBO J, 2018; Trunk et al, Nature Microbiology, 2018). In this project you will learn and apply this exciting technology to understand the roles of a specific signalling pathway in macrophages and their role in cancer. In addition you will have the opportunity to learn many other molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry techniques such as generation of Crispr Cas9 knock-out cell lines, immunofluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry.