Australia Japan Foundation Initiative - Children's Cancer Institute

Basit Salik in Dr Jenny Wang's group from the Children’s Cancer Institute was a recipient of 2 cell lines which were funded under the Australia-Japan Foundation initiative. He described the research project below.

"Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is the most deadly form of leukaemia resulting in the highest numbers of leukaemia-associated deaths worldwide. This is due to the extremely high rate of disease relapse. Frequently, patients initially respond well to treatment but 40% of children and 70% of adults in remission from AML will relapse. A small sub-population of leukaemia cells, termed leukaemia stem cells (LSCs), are primarily responsible for driving therapy resistance and disease relapse. In order to improve patient survival, we urgently need new and more effective therapies for the treatment of this deadly disease. To improve anti-cancer therapies, we need to eradicate the LSC population. We have validated leukaemogenic potential of LSC-associated genes in murine cells and in our well-established mouse models of leukaemia. In this study, we wish to extend our studies to human leukaemia cell lines and xenograft models.

This project will investigate a plausible mechanism for targeting and eradicating the LSC population by targeting genes that drive malignant self-renewal in an effort to improve patient survival. This project will potentially validate the function of LSC-associated genes in human leukaemia and substantiate their therapeutic potential in the treatment of AML. Furthermore, this project will provide a better understanding of stem cell biology to facilitate the development of anti-cancer stem cell therapeutics for AML and potentially other cancers."

For further reading, recent publications from this laboratory can be found on these links:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25293777
• http://www.nature.com/leu/journal/v30/n8/full/leu201624a.html

"Japan-derived cell-lines for Australia-based preclinical Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) research” is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Japan Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.