Biodiversity statistics and their applications to cancer

Cancer is now recognized as a systemic disease whose growth and progression depend not only on tumor cells but on the coordinated behavior of many different cell types surrounding the tumor. Increasing evidence suggests that the diversity of this so-called “tumor microenvironment” is a major determinant of cancer initiation and resistance to cancer therapies.

Recent advances in RNA sequencing technologies now enable tissue characterization at single-cell resolution, revealing the precise composition of the tumor microenvironment. However, how to interpret this high-dimensional molecular data and how to quantify the diversity of the microenvironment is currently debated. 

This research project aims to develop biodiversity statistics to characterize the heterogeneity of the tumor microenvironment and predict its impact on cancer initiation and progression. Through this collaboration between the Computational Cancer Genomics team at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon and the Rosenberg Lab at Stanford University, we will combine expertise in cancer research and diversity statistics for molecular ecology to adapt biodiversity approaches from ecology to cancer applications. The resulting framework will contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between the complexity of the tumor ecosystem and cancer initiation, progression and resistance to therapies.