Identifying new treatments for infant leukaemia
Co-funded with:
Leukaemia UK
Cancer types:
Leukaemia
Childhood cancer
Project period:
–
Research institute:
University of Edinburgh
Award amount:
£196,193
Location:
United Kingdom
Professor Katrin Ottersbach aims to better understand how particular genes are involved in the development of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in infants. By doing so, she hopes to discover new and potentially lifesaving cures.
Hope for the future
Infant leukaemia is very difficult to treat, and researchers have struggled for decades to find new cures for this devastating disease. Infants with leukaemia are generally given the same therapies as older children or adults, but infants do not respond as well to treatment.
Research has recently shown that infant leukaemia has a unique biology, different to leukaemia in older children or adults, meaning it needs to be treated with different cures. Professor Ottersbach plans to find out more about these differences in order to identify better, kinder treatments for infant patients with leukaemia.
Meet the scientist
Professor Ottersbach’s kids keep her quite busy but when she has a spare moment, she likes playing the violin and foraging for food. She particularly loves forest walks or just sitting in the sun on the bench outside her house with a good book and a cup of coffee.
The science
Infant leukaemia actually develops before birth, in foetal blood cells. Researchers believe this is why infant leukaemia is particularly aggressive, since foetal blood cells can multiply faster than adult blood cells and they have other distinct properties which help support cancer growth.
Professor Katrin Ottersbach and her team at the University of Edinburgh have identified two genes that are involved in the most common type of infant leukaemia, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Both of these genes, SGMS1 and ELOVL1, are involved in regulating the fat content of cells, suggesting that infant leukaemia cells have specific fat requirements that are important to keep them alive. Maybe if you can stop the cancer cells getting the fat they need, you can potentially stop the cancer from growing.
The treatment of infant leukaemia has not improved for decades and is therefore in urgent need of new approaches. I am hoping our research will reveal new vulnerabilities of infant leukaemia and therefore new ways of treating it.
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