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 (Psaila et al, 2016; Popescu et al, 2019; Hua et al, 2019, Roy 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, 2020) 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, 2020). 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.
Our team
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Anindita Roy
Associate 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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Marcela Braga Mansur
Leukaemia UK John Goldman Research Fellow
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Lucy Field
Postdoctoral Research Associate
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Siobhan Rice
DPhil Student
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Caitlin Murnane
DPhil Student
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Rebecca Ling
DPhil student
Latest news
July 2021
Welcome to Lucy Field, who joined our lab to work on a CCLG LPT funded project.
June 2021
Many congratulations to Kate Murnane for winning the first Prof Doug Higgs Prize for students at OCH Day 2021.
May 2021
Welcome to Dr Marcela B Mansur, who has joined our lab with a Leukaemia UK John Goldman fellowship.
March 2021
Many congratulations to Siobhan Rice for being selected as one of the top 3 at the WIMM student presentation day! Good luck for the Ita Askonas award competition.
LAB ALUMNI
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)
Gallery
Collaborators
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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
Dr Bethan Psaila, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford
Dr S Thongjuea, 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
Ms Sarah Inglott, 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