Main Field(s) of Research, Abstract
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a malignant disorder of lymphoid progenitor cells. The leukemia initiating cells that give rise to the disease live like the normal hematopoetic stem cells (HSC) in the bone marrow. It is known that the bone-marrow establishes a microenvironment where the development of HSC is regulated and controlled. Leukemic cells keep similar molecular interactions with the bone-marrow as do normal HSC. It is known that long-term culture of ALL cells is dependent upon support of stromal cells from the bone-marrow. Secreted factors as well as physical interactions appear to play a role in the survival of ALL cells. The idea of the project is to screen for crucial prosurvival interactions between bone-marrow stromal cells and ALL cells using different siRNA libraries.

Main Fields of Research, Keywords
Interaction of acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells with mesenchymal stroma cells

Special Techniques and Equipment
siRNA, Western Blot, flow cytometry, microscopy