Richard Voit, MD, PhD

Childhood AML is a devastating blood cancer with high rates of treatment failure and relapse. Some types of AML are especially difficult to cure because they have high levels of a protein called MECOM. These AMLs reawaken signals that are normally only active in healthy blood stem cells. We know that high levels of MECOM are bad in AML, but targeted drugs have not been developed. In this proposal, we will use cutting edge technologies to test for weak spots in the MECOM protein itself. This will allow us to develop targeted drugs that can attack those weak spots. In this way, we aim to develop new medications to treat and cure childhood AML.