Grant Challen, PhD

Our research tries to understand the very earliest stages of blood cancer formation.  The goal of this project is to use the processes by which these initial cells use to become cancer against them to develop a new treatments.  In our study of the earliest stages of blood cancer development, our research has identified one way these cancer-forming cells are to live much longer than normal cells, which contributes to their increased growth in the bone marrow.  We have identified a specific process these cancer forming cells use to live much longer than normal.  This discovery is important because it opens up a new treatments.  There is a drug that inhibits the same specific process we show these early blood cancer cells use grow faster.  In this project, we will use this drug in our experiments and on cells from blood cancer patients to determine if it can preferentially kill these cells compared to healthy bone marrow cells.  Most blood cancers currently have no cures.  Our goal is to bring new treatment options for these patients. Ultimately, we hope that such approaches can even be used for blood cancer prevention.