Effects of an aging bone marrow: Progression from CHIPS to blood cancer

FUNDING: 10 weeks (full time, 2 weeks in York, 8 weeks in US, £4,000 stipend, accommodation costs contribution, flight and VISA costs covered)
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LOCATION: Mayo Clinic, US
SUPERVISOR(S):

Dr. Kristina Kirschner, Research Faculty, Rochester, Minnesota


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The Mayo Clinic is one of the leading academic medical centres in the US, committed to understanding disease processes and translating this into best clinical care. The Kirschner Lab studies clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) that occurs in 10-20% of healthy aged individuals from age 60 onwards. CHIP correlates with an increase in the onset of age-related diseases, including blood cancer. We previously reported that the expansion and evolution of somatic mutations associated with CHIP depends on the clonal composition in individual patients. It remains to be elucidated how intracellular mechanisms of different CHIP clones and bone marrow age drive clonal competition and advancement to leukaemia. We have established lentivirally transduced CHIP-specific haematopoietic progenitor cell lines (HPCLSKs) to analyse cell intrinsic effects of clonal growth (proliferation and differentiation) and cell extrinsic factors from the microenvironment by co-culture of bone marrow stromal cells derived from both young and old mice. This project will help to understand the underlying intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms governing the ageing bone marrow microenvironment and progression to blood cancer. Students will need to organise their own accommodation and be expected to present their findings orally at a research day in York in September 2025.