Experimental haematology

Major current funders include Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council, Blood Cancer UK, the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund, and the British Heart Foundation.

Our research has a particular focus on the mechanisms underpinning disease development, haematopoietic stem cell biology, and development of new therapeutic strategies to target leukaemia cells. Understanding the origins and early stages of disease evolution is critical to developing therapies of the future.

The University of York leads the Haematopoiesis Cluster in the MRC National Mouse Genetics Network, which brings together researchers from across the UK to develop new tools to better model disease and achieve clinical impact. We also have significant funding through collaborations with large industrial partners including AstraZeneca and Incyte with the aim of developing new therapeutic agents.

Areas of interest

• Normal and malignant stem cells; investigating how single stem cells are altered to develop into cancer.
• Understand how non-malignant blood disorders, eg bone marrow failure and immune thrombocytopenia, develop.
• Using multiple approaches to determine mechanisms of blood disorder development.