We use a combination of immunomagentic cell separation and multi-parameter fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) to isolate the most primitive haemopoietic stem cells from the progenitor cells in both normal and leukaemic primary samples. Small molecule inhibitors are increasingly becoming available to target these essential stem cell pathways and assessing these novel compounds forms a very important part of our research. An important aim of our work is the translation of basic laboratory research to clinical trials which we have achieved with the use of Hedgehog pathway inhibitors in chronic myeloid leukaemia.Īberrant leukaemia stem cell self-renewal and altered bone marrow microenvironment or “niche” allows the leukaemia stem cells to survive the most effective chemotherapeutic strategies available today, resulting in refractory leukaemia or relapse. We have specific interests in the Hedgehog pathway in myeloid leukaemias, quiescence as a mechanism of drug resistance in leukaemia stem cells and interactions between leukaemia stem cells and their niche, in particular via the CXCL12/CXCR4 axis. Our research group is interested in the abnormalities of stem cell self-renewal and bone marrow microenvironment which develop in myeloid leukaemias. The Leukaemia Stem Cell Self-Renewal group was established in 2008.

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