2019 participants
Imogen Wadd
Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia is the most common type of leukaemia in the UK. Although the disease generally progresses slowly, treating it is difficult. Most patients will initially respond well to the treatment, but the disease will come back and eventually be untreatable, leading to patient death. The causes of this failure of the treatment are largely not known. In this project we will investigate a possible reason why treatment fails for CLL patients. This is based on a type of change that can occur in human DNA called DNA methylation. Our initial results suggest that by studying the specific changes in this DNA methylation in CLL patients, we can predict in advance which patients will respond well to therapy and which patients will not. This project will aim to confirm our initial observations in the hope that this can subsequently be used to improve choice of treatment for CLL patients.
Funding source: Newcastle University
Project supervisor: Dr Gordon Strathdee