Funded by CCLG and CCLG Special Named Fund The Toti Worboys Fund
Lead investigator: Dr Stefan Meyer, University of Manchester
Award: £97,762.00
Funded November 2016
High expression of a cancer gene called EVI1 is associated with high risk and poor outcome in childhood leukaemia.
While this cancer gene has been known to be important in myeloid leukaemia for a while, an important role also in lymphoblastic leukaemia has been recently recognised. How EVI1 maintains leukaemia cell resistance during treatment is not fully understood. Building on the team’s previous work in myeloid leukaemia, this project grant will fund a PhD studentship to study the effect of this cancer gene on lymphoid mouse blood cells and human leukaemia cells.
The research will be using advanced and novel technology to identify its interaction with other proteins and identify the genes that EVI1 regulates in order to find new ways to treat high risk and poor prognosis leukaemia.