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Targeting leukaemia stems cells in childhood acute myeloid leukaemia
Dr Karen Keeshan
University of Glasgow
Glasgow, G61 1QH
1 January 2025
36 months
£299,732
To improve treatment children need improved treatment that does not damage their healthy cells and specifically targets their leukaemia cells which can be resistant and come back at relapse.
The team at the University of Glasgow, led by Dr Karen Keeshan and joined by Prof Jim Norman from CRUK Scotland Institute, have found a marker on the AML cells in children that can be used for a new treatment that could spare toxic effects on healthy cells and could kill cells in refractory/relapsed disease. In order to develop this marker as a new treatment, the team are looking at how the marker is expressed on the leukaemia cells and how it traffics within the leukaemia cells. This information will allow the group to develop drugs that can attach to the marker and kill the cells using the marker as the bullseye. Dr Elzbieta Kania is a senior postdoctoral researcher in Dr Keeshan’s group leading the research in the laboratory.
The marker would be suitable for developing a treatment for children with AML at diagnosis and when their disease returns. This project collectively directly impacts a diverse group of stakeholders e.g. patients with AML, industry and drug developments, researchers in the haematology field and beyond.
Dr Karen Keeshan is an academic childhood leukaemia associate professor at the University of Glasgow with over 20 years experience in the field. She is co-lead of the Children’s Leukaemia Research UK network that organise annual meetings and events throughout the year for the Childhood leukaemia clinical and basic research community. She actively contributes to the UK research community via leukaemia charity grant and journal committee membership. Her research work has defined specific attributes of childhood AML and centres on focusing therapy development specifically for children.
Prof Jim Norman is an academic leader in cancer cell communication and movement, which is extremely important for understanding how cells travel in the body and avoid drug-killing.
Together, this new expert team join forces with CWCUK to allow us to understand how this tag, on childrens’ leukaemia cells, moves and communicates to make the disease worse, with the goal to bring this knowledge to drug developers with CRUK.
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