Translating Single Cell Genomics technologies for Myelodyplastic syndromes receives CRUK Funding
It is with great pleasure to announce that Dr Omina Chowdhury (MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine) with the support of the Translational Research Office (TRO) has been awarded a CRUK Early Detection Primer Award. Collaborating strongly with the Mead Group Haematopoietic Stem Cell Biology Lab (MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine), Onima’s research ambition is to drive the clinical application of single cell sequencing technologies to improve the diagnosis and care of patients with myeloid malignancies.
As a doctor seeing patients with MDS, and also leading the diagnostic laboratory, I have seen how difficult it is to diagnose MDS accurately. We have received 257 referrals in the past 6 years, of which 103 have been given a clear diagnosis, with the remaining 154 being uncertain. We need to improve diagnostics in order to identify patients with bona fide MDS, enabling access to an increasing array of therapies - Dr Onima Chowdhury
CRUK have awarded Onima with £100k for a one year project in order to generate proof of concept data using relevant patient samples and allow de-risking of the technology. Onima is a Consultant Haematologist at Oxford University Hospitals who also currently holds a MRC Clinical Academic Research Partnership Award Fellow (Nuffield Division of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Radcliffe Department of Medicine) and is therefore uniquely positioned to accelerate and drive the translational development of her project.
Onima is currently recruiting a Research Assistant for the project. Find out more about the Research Assistant vacancy.
The TRO would like to wish Oni all the best. Congratulations!!