Molly Endicott

Molly is a final year PhD student investigating the impact of diabetes on cancer biology within the Cancer Genomics group.

Molly's PhD project aims to investigate alterations in the genetic sequence and epigenome of tumours from individuals with type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders. This project gives the opportunity to link with real world clinical data through the Genomics England Clinical Interpretation Partnerships (GeCIPs) and the Genomic Laboratory Hubs, in partnership with the NHS. Molly's work has taken a pancancer approach to investigate associations between cancer and diabetes. As Molly has progressed through her PhD, she has focussed her research on colorectal cancer generating novel long-read sequencing data with Oxford Nanopore Technologies and methylation data using Illumina Infinium methylation Epic version 2 microarrays. Molly has published a detailed literature review in Endocrine Oncology titled "Exploring genetic loci of type 2 diabetes and cancer: a review".

Prior to beginning her PhD, Molly’s undergraduate studies in Biomedical Science taught her countless laboratory techniques along with a sound understanding of human disease. During Molly’s undergraduate degree, she completed a placement year in the department of Physiology and Biophysics at Virginia Commonwealth University in the United States which sparked her passion for research and led to her first publication. Following her placement year, Molly’s dissertation project investigated the effects of amino acid restriction in a leukemic cell line which highlighted her interest in novel therapeutics and a need for a personalised approach to cancer treatment. Molly went on to win The Chris Hunter Memorial Prize Project Report for the best research project and has since co-authored a review paper around her dissertation subject.

Qualifications:

• BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science (IBMS Accredited) from the University of the West of England, 2016 - 2020.