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

急性髓性白血病（AML）是一种侵袭性血液癌症，其特征在于分化阻滞和未成熟髓细胞的积聚。在过去30年中，细胞毒性治疗一直是AML的标准治疗。不幸的是，它往往不能治愈患者（5年生存率低于30%）。因此，迫切需要开发更特异和有效的治疗方法。批量和单细胞RNA测序使研究人员能够量化群体和单细胞的整体基因表达，以进一步了解癌症的发展，维持和治疗。该项目的主要目的是使用最先进的单细胞RNA-seq和生物信息学来定义MOZ和MLL基因重排白血病的细胞层次，以确定这些不同的细胞区室如何受到药物/化合物治疗的影响，并确定对维持最不成熟细胞群至关重要的基因。

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.