13123 East 16th Avenue
Aurora, CO 80045
05/17/2011

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the second most common leukemia in children. Unlike acute lymphoblastic leukemia, for which therapy cures more than 80 percent of patients, AML is very difficult to treat: only about 50 percent of children survive long-term despite the use of very potent chemotherapy. One of the challenges in studying AML and cancers in general is that we do not understand very well why some cancer cells escape the toxic effects of chemotherapy.

We have undertaken a systematic strategy to understand this phenomenon better, utilizing cutting edge molecular biology techniques and computational analyses to Identify, Confirm and Validate proteins which are Functionally Active during Cancer Treatment (FACTs).

During preliminary work, Dr. Porter looked for genes that make ARA-C, a commonly used chemotherapy, better at killing cells. Discovering a gene called WEE1, during a second experiment Dr. Porter confirmed that the gene is a FACT in AML cells treated with ARA-C. There is a new drug that inhibits WEE1, and Dr. Porter now aims to hypothesize that WEE1 plays a critical role in AML cell survival in the presence of ARA-C, and will further explore the role of WEE1 in treating AML.