Ly Vu, PhD

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is one of the most common and aggressive types of blood cancers. Even though we have made exciting progress and have stronger treatments available, around 30% of AML patients who receive treatment will experience a relapse and have a very low chance of survival. Therefore, we need to figure out how these diseases develop and become resistant to treatment. It has been proposed in AML, there are certain cells that have stem cell-like qualities, which allow them to evade therapy and cause the cancer to come back even after treatment. In this project, we will use advanced techniques to investigate how these cells acquire such characteristics by having specific chemical changes on messenger RNAs. Our ultimate goal is to develop new treatments that can improve the lives of people suffering from these deadly diseases.