WHO WE ARE
We are a team of scientists based at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge. We study myeloid malignancies, a group of related blood cancers that remain lethal to many sufferers, both children and adults.
Our goal is to develop new ways to treat or prevent these cancers.
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OUR WORK
The good fight!
BLOOD STEM CELLS &Â MYELOID CANCERS
Our body produces more than 200 billion new blood cells each day. All these cells originate from ~200,000 long-lived blood stem cells, the specialised blood producing cells in our bodies.
The myeloid cancers are a group of related blood cancers that arise from blood stem cells. They comprise acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) & myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN).
Myeloid cancers affect adults and children, and unfortunately remain lethal to many sufferers.
CLONAL HAEMATOPOIESIS & BLOOD CANCER PREVENTION
With time, our blood cells acquire mutations in their DNA. Some mutations can make cells grow faster, a phenomenon known as clonal haematopoiesis (CH).
Most carriers never become aware that they have CH. However, a small minority progresses to myeloid cancer. Analysis of the DNA of blood cells can help identify some of the people at risk.
Our research aims to develop better ways to find those at risk and approaches/treatments to prevent
or delay them from getting blood cancer.
DEVELOPING TREATMENTS AGAINST BLOOD CANCERS
Scientific advances have identified the genes responsible for driving blood cancer development. However, in most cases we do not know how they do so.
Our research aims to decipher how gene mutations cause blood cancers and to use this and other knowledge to discover vulnerabilities of cancer cells.
We then collaborate with other experts to develop new anti-cancer treatments that exploit these vulnerabilities.