Targeting melanoma cellular heterogeneity
Supervisor: Professor E. Elizabeth Patton
Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. Targeted and immune based therapies have dramatically improved patient outcomes, however, most patients with metastatic disease will eventually succumb to the disease due to drug resistance. Our lab has identified melanoma cell populations that directly contribute to drug resistance and disease relapse in zebrafish models and patient samples. This PhD project will use advanced zebrafish models for fate-mapping, lineage tracing, gene editing and drug discovery to specifically target cell populations through disease stages to assess the impact on outcomes in both models and patient samples.