Can molecular detective work lead to new treatments for blood cancer?
Cancer types:
Leukaemia
Blood cancer
Project period:
–
Research institute:
University of Sussex
Award amount:
£217,002
Location:
United Kingdom
Dr Rhys Morgan and his team are using painstaking detective work to uncover new and better ways to treat more patients with an aggressive type of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukaemia. Their work could ultimately lead to lifesaving new cures for patients.
Why is this research needed?
Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a fast-growing type of blood cancer. People diagnosed with AML often need urgent treatment to help get it under control. But unfortunately treatment is not always fully effective, and survival rates for this disease are still quite low. We desperately need more effective treatments to help people with this devastating disease.
Dr Morgan and his team are investigating how specific genetic changes that are often found in AML cells help them to survive. This important detective work should help to reveal previously hidden weak spots in the cancer cell that could be targeted by new cures - with the potential to save many more lives.
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What is the science behind this project?
Blood cancer cells are very different to healthy blood cells. They contain lots of specific genetic changes that can help the cancer cell to survive and thrive. Recently scientists have developed new treatments targeting some of these changes. These treatments are helping to increase survival rates for some patients with the disease.
But not every type of genetic change can be targeted by a drug. For example, many patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) have mutations in a specific gene called WT1 in their cancer cells. Despite much effort, we don’t yet have a treatment that can target WT1.
We know that WT1 helps to control genetic material like DNA in cancer cells. In fact, scientists already know quite a lot about how WT1 controls DNA. But we do not really know how WT1 controls another important type of genetic material, called RNA. This is what Dr Morgan and his team want to find out.
During this project our researchers will use exciting new scientific techniques that can track exactly how WT1 collaborates with other molecules to control RNA genetic material in cells.
They will also tag RNA with special molecules that make it visible under a special microscope. The team can then monitor and measure how RNA levels alter over time in cells that have WT1 mutations.
What difference could this project make to patients in the future?
The team’s innovative sleuthing work should help to uncover new weak spots in AML cells that can be targeted with treatments. Any treatment that targets WT1 has the potential to help huge numbers of patients with blood cancer, and other cancers too. This work, supported by Curestarters, could ultimately lead to new cures for many more patients.
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