 |  |  | | | | | Myelodysplastic syndromes | | | | |
| | The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a collection of blood disorders affecting 3,250 people in the UK every year.
Leukaemia research now has over £3.5 million invested in research into this prevalent group of blood cancers.
Professor Alan Warren is a consultant haematologist and leading researcher who is studying MDS patients at the Bone Marrow Failure Clinic at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.
Professor Warren says, “The outcome for most patients is poor and many will go on to develop acute myeloid leukaemia. What’s more, MDS patients are a very difficult group to treat effectively because so little is known about the biology of the disease. Collectively they are among the most prevalent type of blood cancer in the UK and more research into this group of diseases is desperately needed.”
Recent work by Professor Warren has linked MDS and leukaemia predisposition to defects in the biological machinery called ribosomes, which ‘translate’ genetic information from DNA into proteins.
Working with patients in the clinic, Professor Warren has been studying a rare disorder called Shwachman-Diamond syndrome, which is associated with striking predisposition to MDS and leukaemia. He has discovered that the SBDS gene that is mutated in this disorder is involved in the assembly of the normal ribosome machinery. Professor Warren is now studying whether defects in this pathway are found in other forms of MDS in order to develop more targeted therapies and better diagnostic tools for this group of patients.
Professor Warren adds, “The NMR spectroscopy laboratory here within the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering and MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology is a world-class facility that allows us to see the fine structure of proteins in much more detail and we can use this information to develop drugs that will bind to well characterised target proteins.”
“My team are all very pleased with the progress we are making into this area of research and are encouraged by the collaborations we have made with colleagues worldwide which are assisting us greatly with our work.”
With your donation or support we can continue investing in research that will make a real difference to the lives of those affected by blood cancers.
Find out more about MDS and other blood cancers by visiting our disease information pages.
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"As a trained clinician and leader of a major Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research funded project I am in an excellent position to translate the findings of my research into treatments for patients with MDS."
Professor Alan Warren
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