|  |  |  | | | | BRADFORD SCIENTIST WINS PRESTIGIOUS RESEARCH AWARD | | | | |
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Release Date: 16th January 2003
Dr Waseem Qasim, a young paediatrician from Bradford, has won a prestigious research award from the UK's leading blood cancer charity Leukaemia Research Fund (LRF). The LRF Clinician Scientist Award will enable him to carry out pioneering research into bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in London.
The 33-year-old from Allerton will be working alongside leukaemia experts at the Institute of Child Health (University College London) and Great Ormond Street Hospital. "I am delighted that LRF has given me the opportunity to work with some of the UK's leading leukaemia experts," he said.
"This award means I can continue my clinical training whilst using laboratory time to carry out research that will directly benefit my patients," he added.
LRF has committed £340,000 to his research programme, due to begin later this year. The aim of the award - which has been set up with the Academy of Medical Sciences - is to allow talented young medical scientists to combine specialist training in medicine with post-doctoral research.
Dr Qasim is developing new ways to overcome a post-transplant complication called graft-versus host disease (GvHD) which occurs when the immune cells from the donor recognise the patient's cells as foreign and attack them. This can be very serious, affecting the liver and gut, and may even be life-threatening.
"Special white blood cells from the donor called T-cells have the ability to kill cancer cells but they also attack the patient's healthy cells. We are looking to manipulate these T-cells to maximise their cancer-killing ability but to prevent them damaging the patient," he said.
Dr David Grant, LRF Scientific Director, said: "Thousands of patients with leukaemia and other forms of blood cancer need a bone marrow transplant each year. For many, a transplant is their only hope of survival."
Despite improvements, sadly many people still die after a transplant because of infections, or because of problems that occur if the patient's body rejects the donor's cells.
"Research like this will move us towards one of our objectives - an even higher success rate for bone marrow transplants and ultimately save many more lives."
24,500 people are diagnosed with leukaemia or one of the related cancers of the blood in the UK every year.
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