Development of novel immunotherapeutics to treat p53 mutated acute myeloid leukaemia

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is an aggressive blood cancer that affects around 3,100 people in the UK each year. Cure is only possible with intensive chemotherapy and, sometimes bone marrow transplantation. Sadly, patients whose leukaemia cells carry faults (mutations) in a gene called p53 have particularly poor outcomes. Their disease is either resistant to treatment, or they relapse quickly. Most patients with these mutations die from their disease. New treatment approaches for this group are urgently needed.

In other blood cancers, novel immune-based treatments have transformed survival. These treatments work by causing immune cells to recognise specific proteins on the surface of the cancer cells and then kill them. Unfortunately, this has been harder to achieve in AML because safe and effective target proteins are less well understood.

In this project, we will use cutting-edge technology to map all of the proteins present on the surface of p53-mutant AML cells. We will then test the most promising ones as potential targets for new immune therapies. Finally, we will create prototype treatments in the laboratory and evaluate them in pre-clinical models. Our aim is to find the most promising prototype treatment, which can then be rapidly advanced towards clinical trials for one of the deadliest forms of AML.