Contact information
Research groups
Giulia Orlando
Leukaemia UK John Goldman Fellow
DPhil
I have graduated at the University of Turin in 2010 before starting my DPhil at the University of Oxford, which I concluded in 2014. During my postdoc at The Institute of Cancer Research, I investigated how germline and somatic variations in regulatory elements can affect gene regulation in cancer.
I have joined the team Prof. Adam Mead in 2020, where I am investigating how aberrant gene regulation contributes to the development of a rare childhood leukaemia, namely juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia (JMML). Mutations in RAS pathway genes alone in the hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are sufficient to drive oncogenesis, making JMML the perfect disease model to study aberrant RAS signalling. Recent data from our group has shown that RAS-activated HSPCs are characterised by a distinct transcriptional profile. However, very little is known about the gene regulatory network sustaining RAS transcriptional programme. I will employ cutting-edge technologies to dissect how aberrant RAS activation leads to epigenetic changes in order to identify the key transcription factors and chromatin remodelers involved. As effective targeted therapy to tackle RAS proteins has proven exceedingly difficult to develop, my final aim is to elucidate novel therapeutic strategies to target RAS signalling activation in JMML patients.
Key publications
-
Promoter capture Hi-C-based identification of recurrent noncoding mutations in colorectal cancer
Journal article
Orlando G. et al, (2018), Nature Genetics, 50, 1375 - 1380
-
Capture Hi-C Library Generation and Analysis to Detect Chromatin Interactions
Journal article
Orlando G. et al, (2018), Current Protocols in Human Genetics, 98, e63 - e63
-
Identification of recurrent noncoding mutations in B-cell lymphoma using capture Hi-C
Journal article
Cornish AJ. et al, (2019), Blood Advances, 3, 21 - 32
-
Identification of 19 new risk loci and potential regulatory mechanisms influencing susceptibility to testicular germ cell tumor.
Journal article
Litchfield K. et al, (2017), Nat Genet, 49, 1133 - 1140
-
Variation at 2q35 (PNKD and TMBIM1) influences colorectal cancer risk and identifies a pleiotropic effect with inflammatory bowel disease.
Journal article
Orlando G. et al, (2016), Hum Mol Genet, 25, 2349 - 2359
Recent publications
-
Chromothripsis orchestrates leukemic transformation in blast phase MPN through targetable amplification of DYRK1A.
Journal article
Brierley CK. et al, (2023), bioRxiv
-
Pan-cancer Genome Analysis: In the Clouds?
Journal article
Orlando G. and Mead A., (2020), The Hematologist, 17
-
Insight into genetic predisposition to chronic lymphocytic leukemia from integrative epigenomics
Journal article
Speedy HE. et al, (2019), Nature Communications, 10
-
Transcriptome-wide association study of multiple myeloma identifies candidate susceptibility genes
Journal article
Went M. et al, (2019), Human Genomics, 13
-
Association analyses identify 31 new risk loci for colorectal cancer susceptibility.
Journal article
Law PJ. et al, (2019), Nat Commun, 10