Recipient: Professor Ricky Johnstone
Institute: Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Funding: $218,338 October 2021 to September 2023
Finding novel therapies for poor-outcome childhood leukaemias.
Blood cancers termed leukaemias make up 30 percent of diagnosed childhood cancers.
Despite overall five-year survival rates for childhood leukaemia having greatly improved, acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and subsets of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) remain characterised by poor prognosis with high chances of relapse.
Read more: Therapeutic targeting transcriptional addiction in paediatric leukaemias.
Previous research has identified that these leukaemias rely on genetic alterations that promote metabolic changes in cells. This project, led by Professor Ricky Johnstone, will focus on how to target this metabolic process, exploiting it therapeutically to turn the cancer’s strength into a weakness and improve future treatments for children with leukaemia.