Latest News on the UCL Research Programme

The team working on the Edward Showler Foundation Clear Cell Sarcoma research programme at UCL, under Dr. Nischalan Pillay, is now in place.

Dr Akanksha Farswan has been appointed as a bioinformatician and joined the team on the 1st August 2022 and Christie Davies started at the end of 2021 as a research technician and biobank co-ordinator. We send our warmest welcome to both Akanksha and Christie.

The initial batch of clear cell sarcoma (CCS) samples from the bio bank at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital have now been genomically sequenced and further CCS tissue samples are being retrieved and protocols are being agreed with a number of other sarcoma centres across the UK and Europe to receive CCS tissue samples from their bio banks.

The next stage is to begin to interpret the data from the sequenced samples and it is expected that patterns will emerge that will show irregularities in the genome with either single or groups of chromosomes being out of sequence. 

This analysis will assist in better understanding the genomic causes of the disease and in identifying existing drugs that may be repurposed to treat the condition. It will be a long process but we feel that a very positive start has been made.