Statistical Bioinformatics Seminar: Dr Jorge Galeano (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)

Speaker: Dr Jorge Galeano (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center) 

Abstract: The tumor-associated microbiota has been gaining significant attention due to
its ability to promote cancer progression in tumors from the gastrointestinal tract.
Microbiome analysis has identified the microorganisms that could be associated with
cancer cell malignancy during metastasis and chemoresistance.  For instance, the
enrichment of Fusobacterium nucleatum in the tumor tissue has been associated with poor
clinical outcomes in patients with colorectal cancer.  However, it is still unknown how
these microorganisms are spatially distributed across the tumor tissue and with what
elements of the tumor tissue they interact with to promote cancer progression.  In this
work, by modifying existing technologies that can map the spatial distribution of RNA
transcripts and protein molecules along the tumor tissue, we found that intratumoral
bacteria reside in distinct microniches that are functional different from other
microcompartments from the same tumor sample.  The bacteria-infected microniches were
characterized to be hypoxic and largely immunosuppressive with an increased infiltration
of pro-inflammatory myeloid cells such as neutrophils and macrophages and excluded from
T cell.  Cancer epithelial cells that resided in microniches containing bacteria
exhibited limited capacity to proliferate with sever chromosome instability.  We
conclude that intratumoral bacteria is not randomly distributed across the tumor tissue,
instead they are highly organized in distinct microniches that can modulate the
biological funtion of other elements of the tumor microenvironment including the
anti-tumor immune response and cancer epithelial cell compartments.  

About the speaker: Jorge completed his medical degree at the National University of
Colombia.  Then he migrated to Sydney, Australia where he studied actin dynamics in
cytotoxic T cells during antigen engagement with cancer cells at the University of
Sydney.  During his doctoral degree he investigated the molecular mechanisms that drive
T cell recruitment in the tumor tissue at the EMBL Australia UNSW node.  He is currently
doing his postdoctoral training at the Fred Hutch, Seattle USA, where he is studying the
influence of bacteria in promoting cancer development.  

This event will be held online.  

Zoom: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/84087321707