Milena Bikova

Research Interests

Paediatric high-grade gliomas are a group of aggressive childhood brain cancers with very limited treatment options. They are characterised by mutations in histone H3, often occurring alongside additional genetic alterations that contribute to tumour formation and heterogeneity. I am interested in how the tumour microenvironment shapes different aspects of tumour behaviour. To study this, I use computational approaches, analysing spatial transcriptomics and single-cell RNA sequencing data generated from mouse models developed in our lab that recapitulate the molecular alterations of paediatric gliomas. Through this work, I hope to widen our understanding of tumour-microenvironment interactions and identify pathways that could be explored therapeutically.

Background

I am currently undertaking my DPhil at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research under the supervision of Dr Manav Pathania, and I'm co-supervised by Professor Claudia Kleinman at McGill University as part of an international collaboration. Prior to this, I completed my Bachelor’s degree at the University of Essex, where I worked with Dr Vladimir Teif investigating nucleosome repositioning in cancer and ageing. My research focused on how chromatin organisation affects gene regulation and how these changes may be used for diagnostics. This experience shaped my interest in the molecular and epigenetic mechanisms that drive disease and led me to pursue further research in cancer biology.