My PhD thesis title was Cooperativity between MYC and other oncogenic factors : implications for tumorigenesis and targeting of MYC

My main Supervisor Lars-Gunnar Larsson and our whole lab specialize in studying MYC oncogene. It is the master regulator of the cell and is the driver in many different types of cancer. This makes it a great target for cancer drug. However, it is also an important gene for normal cell functioning and knocking it out can be lethal to normal cells. In embryos, knocking MYC out kills the embryo. So it was an ardous task to target this gene. The dedication of this lab to studying MYC came to fruitation when our lab found strategies to target MYC safely. I am very happy to have been part of the early screening work.
My very talented co-supervisor Alina Castell continued to bring the MYC targeting research further to develop therapies and is now heading a Start-Up working on Cancer Therapy.
Upon request, I am sharing the link to my thesis below (end of the post).
While I was writing up the thesis, I read up many reviews further than what I was working on. From there, I learnt a lot more about Cancer in general. I added many of the pertinent points in the introduction of my thesis.

Some of the points I would like to share here are:
1. Cancer is not a single disease but rather a systemic disease. So the causes and the cure for each type of cancer may not be the same.
2. Cancer can be caused by genetic factors, leading to cancers at a young age.
3. Cancer can also be caused by environmental factors, leading to cancer later in life and is estimated to be the cause of 90-95% of all cancers.
4. The environmental factors can be chemical, physical or biological, natural or synthetic.
5. Conventional therapeutic strategies against cancer include chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. While these therapies may benefit some patients, they also have disadvantages. Novel approaches, such as immunotherapy and targeted therapies, have been developed more recently with more targeted results.

In my abstract, I summarized the findings of my 6 year research in the lab, of course in collaboration with many other researchers and labs. To mention some of the points briefly without getting in to details:
a) As we study the anti-cancer mechanisms in cellular models, we understand that antitumor barriers work differently in different species and in different cell types.
b) One strategy for targeted cancer treatment is to target the degradation of the cancer drivers, in this case, MYC.
c) Another strategy is to regulate the factors that activate MYC, which we found as a potential strategy in MYC-driven cancer, including breast cancer.
d) Our lab found a molecule that can potentially target MYC with high affinity.

The links to my full thesis and publications can be found here:
https://openarchive.ki.se/articles/thesis/Cooperativity_between_MYC_and_other_oncogenic_factors_implications_for_tumorigenesis_and_targeting_of_MYC/26922043?file=48967501

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