Chromosomal instability in cancer pathogenesis and treatment

Cancer cells scramble their own DNA as they grow, and this genetic chaos drives the disease forward. Researchers at this lab are working out exactly how that chromosomal instability helps pancreatic tumours survive, spread, and resist treatment. Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, with few early detection tools and limited therapy options. The team aims to turn their understanding of this instability into practical tools: better ways to identify people at genetic risk, blood tests or scans that catch the cancer earlier, and treatments that exploit the cancer’s own genetic fragility. If the work succeeds, it could shift pancreatic cancer from a near-certain death sentence to a more manageable disease. The project is primarily fundamental science—it asks how a basic property of cancer cells works—but it is directly aimed at clinical translation. Past discoveries about chromosomal instability have already led to drugs like PARP inhibitors for breast and ovarian cancers; this research could open similar therapeutic avenues for a cancer that currently has very few.