Founded in 2015, we are investigating the link between human fetal haematopoiesis and the origin and biology of childhood leukaemia. In particular, we are interested in the pathogenesis of infant leukaemia, which is a refractory disease that invariably originates in utero.
The focus of research in the Childhood Leukaemia group is to study prenatal B lymphopoiesis in order to understand the origins of childhood leukaemia (Jackson, Ling and Roy 2021), in particular poor prognosis subtypes such as infant acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Infant ALL invariably originates before birth and MLL gene rearrangement is often sufficient to cause leukaemic transformation without additional genetic abnormalities (Rice and Roy, 2020). Our research aims to identify and characterise the poorly understood target cell population responsible for in utero initiation of infant ALL. In order to understand the origins of infant ALL we have characterised prenatal human B cell hierarchy for the first time (O'Byrne et al, 2019), thereby identifying specific ontogeny related developmental programmes and a possible fetal specific target cell for infant ALL. Through several collaborative projects, we use functional and molecular single cell approaches to understand human haematopoiesis (Popescu et al, 2019; Hua et al, 2019, Roy, Wang et al 2021, Jardine, Webb et al 2021) These data are crucial in understanding how changes in B lymphopoiesis through the human lifetime influence the biology of leukaemias that originate at different ages. We now want to characterise the unique prenatal B progenitors by detailed immunophenotypic, functional and molecular studies in order to determine whether they may be a substrate for leukaemia initiating hits in infant ALL. To do this we have developed novel leukaemia models by transforming human fetal progenitor cells using CRISPR-Cas9 mediated chromosomal translocations (Rice et al, 2021) in collaboration with the Milne lab. This approach will allow us to identify pathways that can be targeted for future therapies in infant ALL (Godfrey, Crump et al, 2020; Harman et al, 2021). We also aim to create a low-cost model of care for infant ALL in resource-poor settings, and have started collaboration with centres in India in order to deliver this.
We work closely with Prof Irene Roberts investigating how trisomy 21 perturbs haematopoiesis before birth and its implications for Down syndrome associated leukaemias in children, in particular DS-ALL.
Available positions: DPhil in Cancer Science 3 yr DPhil project on infant ALL; suitable for clinical trainees. More details and application portal here (Project no. 40 in booklet).
Our team
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Anindita Roy
Professor of Paediatric Haematology
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Natalina Elliott
Postdoctoral Researcher
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Thomas Jackson
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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Joe Cross
Postdoctoral Research Associate
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Emily Neil
Postdoctoral Research Associate
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Rebecca Ling
DPhil student
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Lucy Hamer
DPhil Student
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Sarah Inglott
Senior Scientist - Study of Acute Infant leukaemia (SAIL Project)
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Marcela Braga Mansur
Leukaemia UK John Goldman Research Fellow
Latest news
September 2023
Anindita Roy appointed Professor of Paediatric Haematology at University of Oxford
July 2023
Welcome to Emily Neil, who has joined our team as a postdoctoral research associate this month.
October 2022
A warm welcome to Lucy Hamer who has joined our team this month, with a WIMM Prize DPhil studentship.
September 2022
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. Read about our group's activities for CCAM including an animation video about our research
Childhood Leukaemia Research Group Photo Gallery
Childhood Leukaemia Research Group Videos
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Collaborators
Prof Irene Roberts, Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford
Prof Thomas Milne, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford
Prof Adam Mead, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford
Prof Bethan Psaila, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford
Prof Tassos Karadimitris, Centre for Haematology, Imperial College London
Prof Muzlifa Haniffa, Newcastle University
Prof V Saha, Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata, India
Dr Philip Ancliff, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London
Dr Jack Bartram, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London
Prof Pablo Menendez, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Prof Adam de Smith, UCSF, San Francisco, USA
Prof Logan Spector, UMN, USA
Dr Stefan Muljo, NIH, USA
Lab Alumni
Caitlin Murnane (DPhil)--> Graduate entry Medicine course, University of Oxford
Dr Marcela B Mansur--> Senior postdoctoral fellow, ICR London
Dr Lucy Field (postdoc)--> Research Scientist at Adaptimmune Therapeutics, Oxford, UK
Siobhan Rice (DPhil)--> Postdoctoral researcher at Dana Farber, Harvard. USA
Sorcha O'Byrne (DPhil)--> Research Scientist at BD, Ireland
Dr Gemma Buck (postdoc)--> Data manager, Oxford Centre for Global Health Research
Ella Mae Labbett (Undergrad)
Hannah Fuchs (Undergrad)
Rebecca Howitt (Undergrad)
Freya Peers (Undergrad)
Sahani de Silva (Undergrad)