Ahmad Salman Sirajee, MS
A Novel cfDNA Fragmentomic Index for Non-Invasive Bladder Cancer Management
Abstract
Heterogeneous clinical outcomes in bladder cancer, alongside its high treatment costs, underscore the need for improved management strategies. Liquid biopsy sequencing based on cell-free DNA (cfDNA) offers a promising non-invasive approach to inform about tumor burden and molecular markers for precision medicine. cfDNAs in blood undergo non-random degradation based on their epigenetic contexts of origin and nuclease activities. I posit that deconvolution of cfDNA fragmentomic signatures can allow us to learn about the functional genomic contexts of the tumor and its interactions with its immune microenvironment, predicting which cancer patients might benefit from immunotherapy. I propose to develop and apply a composite cfDNA fragmentomic index, named the FRAGILE score, for stratification and monitoring of bladder cancer patients receiving BCG treatment based on serial liquid biopsy samples and associated clinical genomics data.
This fellowship will help me accelerate my research on non-invasive monitoring of bladder cancer using cell-free DNA. As an international student, this recognition is especially precious. Receiving this fellowship is both a major milestone and a relief.
