|  |  |  | | | | £2.2 MILLION TO CAMBRIDGE LEUKAEMIA RESEARCH | | | | |
| |  Professor Tony Green
Release Date: 18th December 2002
So small they are impossible to see with the naked eye - but so important because they affect the way millions of blood cells grow and divide in our body each day.
Such are the 23 pairs of chromosomes found in each human cell, some of which come under investigation by scientists at the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke's Hospital.
Led by Professor Tony Green, the research team has been awarded £1.6 million by the Leukaemia Research Fund (LRF) to push forward with its pioneering research into the myeloproliferative disorders (MPD), a group of life-threatening blood disorders related to leukaemia.
The human genome consists of at least 30,000 genes contained on the minute strands of chromosomes. Like leukaemia, MPD arise from alterations in the structure and behaviour of the genes controlling cell division, maturation and death. These changes can be small such as a single missing gene or relatively large such as part of one chromosome swapping with another (known as a translocation).
The LRF team is closing in on the changes that cause the myeloproliferative disorders, which affect nearly 2,000 people in the UK each year.
Professor Green explained: "Finding these gene alterations will enable us to develop important diagnostic tests. Unravelling the complex way in which gene damage affects the working life of blood cells will, I believe, help us find new ways to overcome the disease."
The myeloproliferative disorders are worrying illnesses which, without proper treatment, can be life-threatening. In some cases they transform into full-blown leukaemias.
MPD covers three blood disorders: over production of the platelets (essential thrombocythaemia); over production of the red blood cells (polycythaemia vera); over production of the fine network of fibres in the bone marrow that support the blood forming tissue (myelofibrosis).
This £1.6 million grant is part of a £2.2 million funding package for Cambridge research teams from the Leukaemia Research Fund. The cash will strengthen the charity's research presence in the city, and underscores its commitment to beating leukaemia and related blood diseases, which are diagnosed in 24,500 people in Britain each year.
The remaining £600,000 backs researchers in the following way:
More than £450,000 to Dr Berthold Göttgens in the University's Department of Haematology to find out more about blood stem cells, the mother cells from which all blood cells are created. Leukaemias arise when the balance of gene activities that control blood cell production is disturbed.
A further £150,000 to Dr Alan Warren at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology to investigate a protein which is commonly found on acute leukaemia cells. His studies will guide the development of new approaches to treat this disease.
Dr David Grant, LRF Scientific Director, said: "Cambridge is one of the cornerstones of leukaemia research in the UK. The quality of research undertaken in the city is world-leading and will have a major impact on the lives of people with blood disorders such as MPD, leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma."
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