Investigating leukaemia cellular heterogeneity and stem cell properties by single cell RNAseq technologies

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive blood cancer characterized by a block in differentiation and an accumulation of immature myeloid cells. Cytotoxic therapy has been the standard of care over the last 30 years for AMLs. Unfortunately, more often than not, it fails to cure the patient (5 years survival rate lower than 30%). Therefore, there is a pressing need for the development of more specific and efficient therapies. Bulk and single cell RNA sequencing have empowered researchers to quantify the global gene expression of populations and single cells to further understand the development, maintenance and treatments of cancers. The main aims of this project are to use state of the art single cell RNA-seq and bioinformatics to define the cellular hierarchy in MOZ and MLL gene rearranged leukaemia, to determine how these different cellular compartments are affected by drug/compound treatments and to identify genes critical for the maintenance of the most immature cell populations.