The team behind the research are part of Professor Jonathan Bond’s group at Systems Biology Ireland. Prof Bond said, “This study started when the clinical team in Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin discovered a new gene fusion in a patient’s leukaemia (blood cancer) cells. Fusions are very common in leukaemia and they often affect how these cancers respond to treatment. We asked Emma to help us investigate this novel finding during her summer project. Emma used several different laboratory techniques to show that the fusion might make blood cancer cells less aggressive, which means they may respond better to chemotherapy. As it turned out, this was in line with the clinical course of the patient, who happily is now doing very well after finishing their treatment”.
Emma’s lab co-supervisors Tânia Dias and Sharmila Biswas also played a pivotal role in the research.
Paper title: A novel TCF3::PIK3R1 fusion linked to decreased PI3K-AKT signalling activity in paediatric B-acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
To read the full paper, visit here.
Congratulations to all members of the team behind this research:
Emma Grady, Sharmila Biswas, Tânia Dias, Peter McCarthy, Cosmin Tudose, David Betts, Andrea Malone, Jonathan Bond
