Projects we fund

Overview

Leukaemia is the most common cancer to affect children and teenagers, accounting for approximately 1 in 3 cancers. Overall, the survival rates for leukaemia in children have greatly improved. However, some groups of leukaemias are still very difficult to treat. Leukaemias with a mutation in a gene called MLL can be very aggressive and resistant to even the latest therapies. This sadly means that children with this type of leukaemia have a lower chance of survival. Dr David Clynes has found that MLL-mutated leukaemias also have very low amounts of a particular protein he’s been studying. This means this protein might normally help to prevent the development of this aggressive type of leukaemia. Learning more about this protein may reveal new ways that this type of leukaemia could be treated. In this project, Dr Clynes will investigate the role of this protein in MLL-mutated leukaemias. He will do this by studying leukaemia cells grown in the lab, and samples donated by patients. He first aims to find out why these leukaemias have low levels of this protein. He will then look at how this helps cancer cells to survive and multiply. Finally, he will study if low levels of the protein are actually helping to cause mutations in the DNA which lead to leukaemia.

What difference will this project make?

Childhood leukaemias with mutations in the MLL gene can be very resistant to existing treatments. Dr Clynes’ research project will increase our understanding of how this form of leukaemia develops. This could eventually lead to new treatments to give children with these cancers the best possible chance of survival.