OWEN HOARE

My undergraduate degree was in Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical Science, where I primarily studied chemistry and biology-based modules. I gained extensive knowledge about drug development and how these drugs interact with the body at a pharmacological level. Through my undergraduate studies, I was fortunate to learn a great deal about the workings of our immune system and how this can be harnessed to treat and combat cancer. I was fascinated by the link between biology and disease, which led me to pursue a Master's in Cancer Research, focusing on drug resistance in breast cancer. Following this, I undertook a PhD in Computational Biology, specializing in chemotherapy resistance in colorectal cancer and the role the tumor microenvironment plays in promoting resistance.

I am currently working on SMARCB1-deficient tumors, predominantly in the pediatric setting, as part of the team led by Frank Bourdeaut. I specialize in developing and deploying bioinformatics tools to analyze both bulk RNA-seq, single-cell RNA-seq, and methylation data to address key biological questions, such as identifying patients who could benefit from immunotherapy. My main project focuses on working with a pan-cancer cohort of patients with a SMARCB1 deletion and investigating the role of transposable elements in driving the expression of neoantigens, which may recruit the immune system and result in an anti-tumor response.