Evaluating patient derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) for drug screening

Stem cells occur naturally in the body and function to sustain many of our tissues. These cells have the potential to renew themselves as well as produce more mature specialist cells. When altered these cells can form cancers and are termed ‘cancer stem cells’ (CSCs). They are resistant to treatment and survive despite our best current therapies, often causing the cancer to re-grow after treatment. Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) results from a specific genetic alteration in a single blood stem cell, causing the cell to express an abnormal protein called BCR-ABL. This project will evaluate the efficacy of current CML treatment regimes on CSC models generated from patient cells.