Precision Med. & Drug Res.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE
Postdoctoral Researcher
2016-2020
Institute of Cancer Research, Centre for Evolution and Cancer, London, UK
Postdoctoral Researcher
2012-2016
Medicine and Health, Faculty of Biology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
EDUCATION
Ph.D
2008-2012
Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, Manchester, UK
B.Sc
2002-2007
Department of Biological Sciences, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkiye
RESEARCH SUMMARY
Precision Medicine and Drug Resistance in Cancer Laboratory aims to understand the underlying mechanisms of drug resistance in cancer. Our goal is to study how cancers evolve and develop resistance to therapies. We are interested in developing quantitative in vitro 2D/3D co-culture systems with stromal fibroblasts. We leverage single-cell barcoding and next-generation sequencing technologies to delineate actionable mechanisms of drug resistance. To better address patient-specific drug resistance, we generate ex vivo Patient-Derived Organoids (PDOs) as a preclinical model system. Lastly, we are working on developing and optimising deep learning models for histopathological WSIs to enable the acquisition, management, and extraction of the information that is crucial to decision-making processes in cancer.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
A. Acar, A. Hidalgo-Sastre, MK. Leverentz, CG. Mills, S. Woodcock, M. Baron, GM. Collu, K. Brennan “Inhibition of Wnt signalling by Notch via two distinct mechanisms” Scientific Reports, In Press (2021)
GD. Yalcin, N. Danisik, RC. Baygin, A. Acar “Systems biology and experimental model systems of Cancer” Journal of Personalized Medicine, 10.3390/jpm10040180 (2020).
G. Caravagna, T. Heide, M. Williams, L. Zapata, D. Nichol, K. Chkhaidze, W. Cross, GD. Cresswell, B Werner, A. Acar, CP. Barnes, G. Sanguinetti, TA. Graham, A. Sottoriva “Subclonal reconstruction of tumors using machine learning and population genetics” Nature Genetics, 10.1038/s41588-020-0675-5 (2020).
A. Acar, D. Nichol, J. Fernandes-Mateos, G. Cressswell, I. Barozzi, SP. Hong, N. Trahearn, I. Spiteri, M. Stubbs, R. Burke, A. Stewart, G. Caravagna, B. Werner, G. Vlachogiannis, C. Maley, L. Magnani, N. Valeri, U. Banerji, A. Sottoriva “Exploiting evolutionary steering to induce collateral drug sensitivity in cancer” Nature Communications, 10.1038/s41467-020-15596 (2020).
Spiteri, G. Caravagna, G. Cresswell, A. Vatsiou, D. Nichol, A. Acar, L. Ermini, K. Chkhaidze, B.Werner, R. Mair, E. Brognara, G. Sanguinetti, SGM Piccirillo, C. Watts, A. Sottoriva “Evolutionary dynamics of residual disease in human glioblastoma” Annals of Oncology, 10.1093 (2019).