Dr Joseph Wiemels, University of California San Francisco

Drs Joseph Wiemels and Ru-Fang Yeh, University of California, San Francisco

Despite the remarkable advances in the treatment of childhood leukaemia, there has been no reduction in incidence rates of the disease.

This failure is the result of our inadequate understanding of the causes of childhood leukaemia, meaning that preventative efforts are not currently possible.

In the past, most research into the causes of childhood leukaemia has treated leukaemia as a single disease whereas it is actually a collection of diseases characterised by different genetic abnormalities evident at diagnosis.

These abnormalities are linked with the different manifestations of the disease, in terms of biological and clinical behaviour, and they aid diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.

The different forms of the disease probably have different causes and research treating the disease as a single entity is likely to miss true associations.

In this project Dr Wiemels and colleagues will focus on a common genetic mutation in childhood leukaemia, a translocation between chromosomes 1 and 19.

They hypothesise that this translocation is induced by a combination of enzymes produced by the cells themselves and external factors that may be infectious or environmental in origin.

The team will perform detailed molecular analyses of the genes, enzymes and DNA structures involved in the chromosome translocation to uncover the precise mechanisms involved.

In a multi-pronged approach, the team will collaborate with colleagues on the Northern California Childhood Leukemia Study to identify epidemiologic factors which are common among leukaemic children with the t(1;19) translocation.

By breaking down the disease sub-groups in this way the team may be able to produce more definitive answers about the environmental factors that play a role in the development of childhood leukaemia as well as advancing our understanding of the mechanisms involved in the development of the disease.

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