News
Principal Investigator David Knapp receives a Terry Fox Research Institute Award
Published on March 8, 2023
David Knapp, director of IRIC’s Cellular Engineering Research Unit, is among the 2023 recipients of the Terry Fox New Investigator Awards. He will receive $433,850 over three years for the project “Understanding the Cellular Mechanisms of Age Associated Clonal Hematopoiesis“.
Understanding how certain mutations predispose to leukemia
In some people, the accumulation of mutations in the blood stem cells increases the risk of developing leukemia. The goal of the funded project is to identify the mutations that lead to cancer and to characterize their effects on the normal function of blood stem cells.
The team’s work will lead to a better understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which these mutations provide advantages to the cells, advantages that favor their propagation at the expense of normal cells. This understanding could allow interventions to stop these cells before leukemia develops.
