This group is focused on the characterization and functional validation of genomic alterations in benign and malignant liver tumors, identification of new clinical/genomic risk factors, and ultimately, translation to the clinics. Particularly, this part of the lab studies the involvement of viral infections and their integration in liver carcinogenesis by integrating the analysis of viral and tumor genome alterations. Recently, the team focused on pediatric liver tumors to identify new molecular subtypes and cancer driver genes using an integrated genomic analysis (whole genome, RNA sequencing and DNA methylation profiling) taking advantage of a unique set of frozen pediatric liver tumors from 193 patients. We also identified a molecular classification of clear cell renal cancer that is used for prospective clinical trial to search for factors predicting response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors and to immunotherapy.
