Janice Miller is a Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and Specialist Registrar in General Surgery in the South-East Scotland Deanery. Janice Miller Clinical Research Fellow Contact details Email: j.miller@ed.ac.uk Appointments and Activities Having completed her undergraduate training at the University of Aberdeen, Janice moved onto complete the post graduate foundation and core surgical training programmes in Edinburgh. Janice was appointed as a Specialty Registrar in 2015 and is currently undertaking a 2-year MD after being successfully awarded the Cancer Research UK Pre-Doctoral Research Bursary and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Maurice Wohl Fellowship. Qualifications 2009 BSc (Hons) Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen 2011 MB ChB, University of Aberdeen 2014 MRCS(Ed), Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Project Title Muscle wasting in cancer: Molecular mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets. Project Summary Cancer cachexia has recently been defined as a multifactorial syndrome characterised by an ongoing loss of skeletal muscle that cannot be fully reversed by conventional nutritional support and leads to progressive functional impairment. Cachexia affects most patients with advanced cancer and is associated with reductions in treatment tolerance, response to therapy, quality of life, and survival. The aetiology of cachexia is poorly understood, and there are no agreed diagnostic biomarkers or therapeutic interventions. We aim to investigate the molecular pathways of muscle loss in cancer patients and expand findings from pilot studies via a more definitive study involving qPCR, proteomic, immunohistochemistry and neuromuscular junction analyses, and relate these results to the clinical phenotype of cachexia using various definitions. We also aim to assess the transcriptomic response of adipose tissue during cachexia. We hypothesise that the transcriptome demonstrates differential responses between subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue, and that changes in the adipose transcriptome will identify genes involved in fat-muscle crosstalk. Project Funding RCSEd pump priming grant CRUK Pre-Doctoral Research Bursary RCSEd Maurice Wohl Fellowship Novartis Project Supervisors Professor Steve J Wigmore Professor James A Ross Mr Richard J E Skipworth This article was published on 2024-02-06
