Congratulations Dr Maggie Kalev who was awarded two complementary grants, from the Auckland Medical Research Foundation ($159,999) and Cancer Research Trust ($79,715) to examine the role of cellular stress response in myeloproliferative neoplasms (chronic blood cancers). The focus is on abnormal platelet precursors (megakaryocytes) that cause high platelet counts and bone marrow fibrosis in patients.
The proposed research is motivated by the hypothesis that abnormalities in cell stress response by neoplastic cells drive bone marrow fibrosis, which leads to bone marrow failure and sometimes, acute leukaemia. There are currently no drugs that can prevent such changes. The group believes that modulation of cell stress response can help inhibit disease progression. This hypothesis will be tested using advanced molecular and cell culture methods applied to patient and control cells.