Quebec Leukemia Cell Bank – Genetics of leukemia
Research interests
The goals of the Leucegene group are to :
- Improve the prognostic stratification of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and discover new predictive markers to provide AML patients with personalized treatment to improve their survival.
- Develop new effective therapies for this type of leukemia.
The experimental approaches that we use include complete transcriptome and genome sequencing, chemogenomics and proteomics. For this project, the team sequenced 700 AML samples from the Quebec Leukemia Cell Bank (QLCB) that have good biological and clinical characterization. New gene mutations and signatures as well as a new prognostic marker have been discovered for each of the major AML genetic subgroups. Since 2018, we have been analyzing the genetic profiles of rare AML subgroups as well as the surfaceome of about 100 leukemic samples. We have also been working to identify predictive biomarkers for specific AML therapies. We conducted high throughput chemical screening using 10,000 chemical compounds and 56 genetically diverse AML samples that will allow us to identify novel therapeutic targets and novel chemical compounds that are effective for this cancer.
Quebec Leukemia Cell Bank (QLCB)
Since 2004, the QLCB has contributed to over 110 research projects and many scientific publications in hematological cancers. The QLCB's cytogenetics platform provides standard and molecular cytogenetic analysis and spectral karyotyping (SKY) services for cancer researchers. Thanks to its unique expertise, our team has worked on many research projects in the field of leukemia genetics and DNA repair.