IP: Dr. Juan Camilo Estrada

Resumen del proyecto: We want to undertake – using available clinical samples, the study of telomere biology in order to establish the relationship between genomic integrity –as represented by the presence of critically short telomeres in a given cell sample population and the implication with the occurrence and progression of hematopoietic cancer that are susceptible to be analyzed from blood samples. In particular we want to study chronic lymphocytic leukemia applying our proprietary Telomere Analysis Technology ® (TAT) and telomerase activity determination by Q-TRAP. Rational: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is related with an increase abundance of short telomeres (ref.1). Although its diagnostic is relatively easy, CLL is a heterogeneous disease with different clinical course and progression that ranges from several months till decades. Despite the well-established current classification systems (Binet and Raj) physicians are unable to predict the differential progression of the disease nor can the staging identify patient subgroups´ prognosis. The majority of patients with CLL are diagnosed during the early stages of the disease. The tests used to monitor the disease are either genetic and/or biochemical methods -such the study of IGHV mutations, CD38 and ZAP70 protein expression levels along with cytogenetic anomalies, all associated with bad prognosis. None of these markers by itself or in combination can guarantee a definite prediction on how the patient is going to evolve therefore, there is a medical need of identifying prognostic tools that would allow to provide a fine-tuned evaluation, personalized and able to truly risk-assess CLL patients.

Entidad financiadora: Life Lenght