Professor Trevor Graham
MSc, MRes, PhD
Professor of Cancer Evolution
Group Leader, Research Theme Lead
TwitterResearch Focus
My lab measures the patterns of clonal evolution that define carcinogenesis and develops novel mathematical tools for analysis and prediction. By characterising tumour evolution, we aim to find better ways to determine prognosis and more effective ways to treat cancers.
Key Publications
Quantification of subclonal selection in cancer from bulk sequencing data. Williams MJ, Werner B, Curtis C, Barnes C*, Sottoriva A*, Graham TA*. Nature Genetics (2018) 50(6) 895-903. PMID: 29808029
Identification of neutral tumor evolution across cancer types. Williams M, Werner B, Barnes C, Graham TA*, Sottoriva A*. Nature Genetics (2016) 44, 238-244. PMID: 26780609
The effects of mutational processes and selection on driver mutations across cancer types. Temko D, Tomlinson IPM, Severini S, Schuster-Bockler B*, Graham TA*. Nature Communications (2018) 9(1) 1857. PMID: 29748584
Robust RNA-based in situ mutation detection delineates colorectal cancer subclonal evolution. Baker AM, Huang W, Wang XMM, Jansen M, Ma XJ, Kim J, Anderson CM, Wu X, Pan L, Su N, Luo Y, Domingo E, Heide T, Sottoriva A, Lewis A, Beggs AD, Wright NA, Rodriguez-Justo M, Park R, Tomlinson IPM*, Graham TA*. Nature Communications (2017), 8(1) 1998. PMID: 29222441
Major Funding
- 2018-2023- NIH, Arizona Centre for Cancer Evolution (ACE) Cancer Systems Biology Centre, direct funding of ~$800k of $8M total
- 2017-2022- Wellcome Trust, Evolutionary predictions in colorectal cancer (EPICC), ~£1.3m
- 2015-2021- Cancer Research UK, Career Development Award: Quantification of human colorectal cancer evolution: initiation, progression, metastasis and response to treatment, £1M
Other Activities
- Faculty of gastrointestinal cancer section of F1000.com
- Evolution lead for the colorectal cancer domain (GeCIP) of Genomics England
- Member of Critical Gaps in Bowel Cancer Research working group
Research
The central themes of my lab are:
- Characterising intra-tumour heterogeneity and using it to predict prognosis
- Understanding and predicting the evolution of premalignant disease.
- Understanding how the clonal structure of tissues (particularly in the GI tract) shape patterns of somatic evolution.
The major tools of the lab are genomics, bioinformatics, histopathology and mathematical modelling.
Other Activities
- Faculty of gastrointestinal cancer section of F1000.com
- Evolution lead for the colorectal cancer domain (GeCIP) of Genomics England
- Member of Critical Gaps in Bowel Cancer Research working group
Major Funding
- 2018-2023- NIH, Arizona Centre for Cancer Evolution (ACE) Cancer Systems Biology Centre, direct funding of ~$800k of $8M total
- 2018-2021- Cancer Research UK, Early detection of colorectal cancer risk in patients with inflammatory bowel disease ~£0.5M
- 2017-2019- Bowel and Cancer Research, The epigenetic basis of exceptional survival in metastatic colon cancer, £50k
- 2017-2022- Wellcome Trust, Evolutionary predictions in colorectal cancer (EPICC), ~£1.3m
- 2015-2018- Barts Charity, Large Project Grant: Derivation of evolutionary biomarkers for cancer risk prediction in Ulcerative Colitis, £465k
- 2015-2021- Cancer Research UK, Career Development Award: Quantification of human colorectal cancer evolution: initiation, progression, metastasis and response to treatment, £1M
Recent Publications
Author Correction: Resolving genetic heterogeneity in cancer. Turajlic S, Sottoriva A, Graham T et al. Nat Rev Genet (2019) (2)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31659302
Resolving genetic heterogeneity in cancer. Turajlic S, Sottoriva A, Graham T et al. Nat Rev Genet (2019) 20(1) 404-416
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30918367
Spatially constrained tumour growth affects the patterns of clonal selection and neutral drift in cancer genomic data Chkhaidze K, Heide T, Werner B et al. PLoS Computational Biology (2019) 15(7)
Measuring the distribution of fitness effects in somatic evolution by combining clonal dynamics with dN/dS ratios Williams M, Zapata L, Werner B et al. (2019) (18)
Correction: Genomic profiling reveals spatial intra-tumor heterogeneity in follicular lymphoma (Leukemia, (2018), 32, 5, (1261-1265), 10.1038/s41375-018-0043-y) Araf S, Wang J, Korfi K et al. Leukemia (2019) 33(7) 1540
Evolutionary history of human colitis-associated colorectal cancer Baker AM, Cross W, Curtius K et al. Gut (2019) 68(7) 985-995
NeoPredPipe: High-throughput neoantigen prediction and recognition potential pipeline Schenck RO, Lakatos E, Gatenbee C et al. BMC Bioinformatics (2019) 20(7)
Quantification of Crypt and Stem Cell Evolution in the Normal and Neoplastic Human Colon. Baker A-M, Cereser B, Melton S et al. Cell Rep (2019) 27(1) 2524-2524
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31116993
Multiregion human bladder cancer sequencing reveals tumour evolution, bladder cancer phenotypes and implications for targeted therapy. Heide T, Maurer A, Eipel M et al. Journal of Pathology (2019) 248(1) 230-242
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30719704
Measuring Clonal Evolution in Cancer with Genomics. Williams MJ, Sottoriva A, Graham TA Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics (2019) (1)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31059289
Team
Postdoctoral Researchers in this group
Dr William Cross, Dr Marc Williams, Dr Eszter Lakatos, Dr Annie Baker, Dr Maximilian Mossner
PhD Students
Freddie Whiting, Jacob Househam, Calum Gabbutt
Clinical Research Fellows
Anisha Sukha, Ibrahim Al Bakir, Alison Berner
Biography
I originally trained as a mathematician (MSci Mathematics, Imperial College, 2002) before spending time in a cancer genetics lab as part of my interdisciplinary PhD (PhD Mathematical Biology, UCL, 2009). As a postdoc, I worked in Nick Wright's lab at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute studying clonal expansions in human tissues (2008-2011), and Carlo Maley’s lab at UCSF looking at the pattern of clonal evolution in human cancers (2011-2013).
I joined BCI in September 2013.
Please contact me to discuss opportunities. Further information about my lab can be found here.