Improving AML treatment efficacy by targeting mRNA and protein quality control mechanisms
Queen's University Belfast - PhD
Application Deadline: 22nd May 2025
Acute myeloid leukeamia (AML) remains one of the most lethal blood cancers, with high relapse rates and poor patient survival. While chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation are the current gold standard treatments, therapy resistance remains a major challenge. This PhD project seeks to uncover novel ways to improve treatment efficacy by targeting an often-overlooked cellular process—mRNA and protein quality control.
Cancer cells rely on subverting the quality control mechanisms to survive the stress of chemotherapy. These systems normally ensure the accurate production of proteins in healthy cells but can also be exploited by cancer cells to enable their survival. Our recent research suggests that manipulating cellular quality control pathways could make cancer cells more vulnerable to treatment, increasing the effectiveness of current chemotherapeutics.
This project will investigate how mRNA translation and protein synthesis quality control mechanisms influence AML cell survival and activation of the immune response under chemotherapy-induced stress.