Dr. Wei Dai

Dr. Wei Dai achieved her Bachelor degree in Medical Informatics at China Medical University and MSc. in Bioinformatics at the University of Manchester, and then started her career as Research Assistant for Prof. Robert Brown in the Epigenetics section since April 2008. Her projects involve in (1) identification of DNA methylation prognostic biomarkers in ovarian cancer using large-scale methylation profiling methodology enhanced by bioinformatics and biostatistics approaches; (2) characterisation of ovarian cancer stem cell populations and (3) epigenetic mechanisms of acquired drug resistance in ovarian cancer.

In 2011, she achieved her PhD in cancer epigenetic bioinformatics and started working as bioinformatician funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) in Epigenetics section. Following her PhD study, she is interested in the epigenetic regulation of the Wnt pathways and relevant biological mechanisms contributing to tumour progression and chemosensitivity in ovarian cancer. Meanwhile, she also provides bioinformatic and biostatistical support for Epigenetics team.

Recent publications:

• 1. Sriraksa R; Zeller C; El-Bahrawy MA; Dai W; Daduang J; Jearanaikoon P; Chau-In S; Brown R; et al. (12 Apr 2011). CpG-island methylation study of liver fluke-related cholangiocarcinoma. Br J Cancer. 104:1313-1318 (in press).
• 2. Dai W; Teodoridis J; Zeller C; Graham JS; Hersey JM; Flanagan JM; Stronach EA; Millan DW; et al. (1 Apr 2011). Systematic CpG Islands Methylation Profiling of Genes in the Wnt Pathway in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Identifies Biomarkers of Progression-Free Survival. Clin Cancer Res (in press).
• 3. Rizzo S; Hersey JM; Mellor P; Dai W; Santos-Silva A; Liber D; Luk L; Titley I; et al. (Feb 2011). Ovarian cancer stem cell-like side populations are enriched following chemotherapy and overexpress EZH2. Mol Cancer Ther. 10:325-335.
• 4. Dai W; Teodoridis JM; Graham J; Zeller C; Huang TH; Yan P; Vass JK; Brown R; et al. (2008). Methylation Linear Discriminant Analysis (MLDA) for identifying differentially methylated CpG islands. BMC Bioinformatics. 9:337.