SPECIAL SEMINAR - Yuna BLUM - CNRS Research Scientist - Institut de Génétique & Développement (IGDR) - RENNES

Understanding and modeling tumor heterogeneity and cell plasticity through integrative computational approaches

Dr BLUM Yuna

CNRS Research Scientist

GEO Team / BINGO Emerging Team

Institut de Génétique & Développement (IGDR)

Campus VILLEJEAN - RENNES

Abstract
Tumor progression and resistance to therapy are closely linked to intra-tumoral heterogeneity and cell plasticity. Tumor heterogeneity is often described through discrete molecular classifications, although alternative views based on continuous spectra of tumor cell behaviors shaped by transcriptional and epigenetic regulation are increasingly being explored.
In this talk, I will present an overview of my current research, which aims to develop integrative computational approaches to study tumor heterogeneity and cell plasticity using multi-modal biological data. I will discuss how combining bulk and single-cell data, together with deconvolution strategies, can help reinterpret molecular classifications in terms of continuous representations of tumor heterogeneity.
I will then describe approaches to identify regulatory programs, with a particular focus on epigenetic regulation, that underlie tumor cell plasticity, and discuss how these mechanisms relate to variability in treatment response.
Throughout the presentation, I will illustrate these concepts across several cancer types, with a particular focus on pancreatic cancer.