Defining the role of the revival stem cell during growth and therapy resistance in colorectal cancer

Stem cells are found throughout the body where they produce new cells during regeneration or normal cellular turnover, and also produce more stem cells to ensure the stem cell pool is not depleted. However, under certain conditions, these stem cells may become cancerous and instead support tumour growth, therapy resistance and tumour relapse. A new stem cell population, called the revival stem cell, was recently identified in the normal mouse intestine. This thesis explores this new stem cell within human models of colorectal (or bowel) cancer, to investigate the role of the revival stem cell in a cancer context.