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ABLeS Participant Data Science Unit, Computational Systems Oncology, SAiGENCI, Adelaide

Project title

Integrating HLA Variation and Polygenic Risk Scores to Predict Treatment Response and Clinical Outcomes in Prostate Cancer

Collaborators and funding

SAiGENCI, Adelaide University

Contact(s)

Simranjeet Kaur, Data Science Lead, SAiGENCI, simran.kaur@adelaide.edu.au

Project description and aims

By integrating HLA-focused imputation and polygenic risk score (PRS) development, we aim to:

  1. Identify germline HLA alleles and SNPs associated with prostate cancer susceptibility.
  2. Construct and validate genome-wide and HLA-informed PRS.
  3. Assess whether germline variation predicts recurrence, progression, or survival following primary therapies (surgery, radiation, ADT).
  4. Explore whether germline variation interacts with tumor molecular subtypes (e.g., PTEN loss, ETS fusions, SPOP mutations) or immune features (tumor infiltration, checkpoint expression) that influence treatment sensitivity. The proposed study will provide foundational insights into how inherited variation shapes therapy response and prognosis in prostate cancer.

How is ABLeS supporting this work?

This work is supported through the Production Bioinformatics scheme provided by ABLeS.

Expected outputs enabled by participation in ABLeS

Outputs include a clinically oriented GRS+HLA model, interaction evidence to guide treatment selection, and fully reproducible HPC pipeline, directly translatable to precision oncology workflows. Precisely:

  • Identification of HLA alleles and SNPs influencing recurrence and progression.
  • Development of a validated PRS + HLA risk model for prostate cancer prognosis.
  • Evidence for germline–treatment interactions that may guide therapy selection (e.g., surgery vs. radiation vs. ADT).
  • Insights into host genetics–immune interactions with implications for immunotherapy.
  • A reproducible, HPC-enabled analytic pipeline applicable to other TCGA cancer cohorts.


These details have been provided by project members at project initiation. For more information on the project, please consult the contact(s) or project links above.