Combination Drug Screening to Identify Novel Therapeutic Strategies for Rare Ovarian Cancers

About the Project

Rare ovarian cancers represent a diverse group of malignancies that account for a small proportion of ovarian cancer diagnoses but contribute disproportionately to treatment failure and poor outcomes. Many of these subtypes show intrinsic resistance to standard chemotherapy, and progress in developing new therapies has been limited by their low incidence and biological heterogeneity.

This project aims to identify novel therapeutic strategies for rare ovarian cancers through systematic combination drug screening. Using both high-content imaging and viability-based assays, the student will evaluate a library of clinically relevant compounds to discover synergistic drug pairs that selectively target resistant tumour models. Lead combinations will undergo mechanistic investigation to define how they act at the molecular and cellular levels and how they disrupt resistance pathways.

The findings will provide a foundation for preclinical development of new treatment strategies for rare ovarian cancers, improving understanding of their biology and therapeutic vulnerabilities.

Training provided through the research project

The project will provide hands-on training for the student in the following:

• Cancer cell culture
• Drug toxicity analysis
• AI powered Image-based response profiling
• Functional assays to measure the hallmarks of cancer
• Protein, RNA and DNA isolation methods
• Gene expression and Protein detection methods
• A thorough understanding of cancer research

Working as a PhD will also provide the following training:

• Oral and poster presentation skills
• Working as part of a team
• Project management: Planning and organising experiments, time management
• Teamwork
• Data analysis
• statistical analysis

Expected impact activities

Impact activities include but are not restricted to presenting research to the academic community by attendance at scientific conferences and students from different disciplines through the Graduate School. The student will also have the opportunity to engage with patient and public involvement (PPI) activities.

Funding Notes

This project is not funded; applications are welcome from self-funding candidates.

References

Drug screening, ovarian cancer, cancer pharmacology, drug repurposing