About the Project

The incidence of head and neck cancer (HNC) is on the rise globally. Despite advances in HNC treatment and diagnosis, the mortality rate is high. This is mainly attributed to late diagnosis of established malignancies and the absence of reliable biomarkers for predicting malignant transformation in oral potentially malignant disorders, which carry a higher risk of malignant transformation. The identification of biomarkers for screening and early detection of disease progression is crucial.

Salivary biomarkers are showing promise as diagnostic and prognostic markers for disease progression. Many of these biomarkers are expressed in extracellular vesicles that are shed from different cells in the oral environment. In addition to their potential use as biomarkers capable of predicting disease progression, extracellular vesicles can modulate the immune system within the tumour microenvironment, thus affecting patient outcome.

This project aims at characterising the properties of HNC cell line derived extracellular vesicles and assessing their role in keratinocyte and immune cell function.

This is an exciting project that provides the student with opportunities to use cutting edge technologies including flow cytometry, light and electron microscopy, image analysis, cell culture, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy in addition to gaining in depth knowledge of oral cancer pathogenesis, disease progression and extracellular vesicle biology.