Bowel cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide, and diet is a major modifiable risk factor. However, the molecular mechanisms that link diet to cancer risk remain poorly understood.
A new grant, awarded by the World Cancer Research Fund International (WCRF) to researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Oxford, aims to increase our understanding of this link by investigating how chemical changes in DNA found in food may contribute to the development of bowel cancer.
The four-year project, led by Professor Skirmantas Kriaucionis and Dr Marketa Tomkova, will examine whether non-canonical nucleotides – chemically modified DNA molecules formed naturally or during cooking – can be absorbed by intestinal cells and incorporated into human DNA, potentially triggering mutations that lead to tumour formation.
Bringing together expertise in epigenetics, cancer metabolism, and computational genomics, the team will use advanced sequencing and mass spectrometry to identify which modified DNA molecules are present in different foods and determine how they interact with our cells’ DNA repair machinery.
Insights from this work could inform future dietary guidelines and strategies to prevent bowel and other gastrointestinal cancers.
Discover more about this study and explore the full project details on WCRF International’s grants database.