Congratulations, Alyona, on successfully defending her PhD thesis.
Alyona Oryshchuk PhD thesis title is ‘Characterisation of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor in Murine Acute Myeloid Leukaemia Model Driven by the CALM-AF10 Gene’. She was supervised by Professor Stefan Bohlander and co-supervised by Dr Purvi Kakadiya, and Dr Rhea Desai.
Alyona investigated the effect of a drug called AHR inhibitor, on leukaemia stem cells. Leukaemia stem cells are at the root one of the most aggressive blood cancers, Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. She established that this drug kills the leukaemia stem cells but even protects normal blood stem cells. Her discoveries might lead to a better way to treat blood cancer.
She also participated in Te Aka Mātauranga Matepukupuku – Centre for Cancer Research’s Symposium at the FMHS and her poster won the $1000 prize.