Hussein Abbas, MD, PhD

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) are aggressive blood disorders that lead to a high risk of infections, anemia, and bleeding. One of the characteristics of these diseases is large changes in the genetic material leading to the acquisition of therapy-resistant features. One of those genetic changes is the loss of chromosome 7. MDS patients who have lost chromosome 7 are more likely to transform into an AML and have high resistance to any available therapies. It is still not clear how the loss in chromosome 7 aids in MDS transformation to AML and confers high therapy resistance states. Our preliminary data suggest that when cells lose chromosome 7, it influences the immune environment where MDS and AML cells reside and thus prevents the normal function of the immune system. Our proposed work aims at understanding how and why chromosome 7 loss generates such remodeling of the immune environment. We will leverage state-of-the-art tools that break down the bone marrow, where these cancer cells reside, into single-cell levels allowing for high-resolution analysis. Since this genetic abnormality occurs in almost one out of three AML/MDS patients, our study will provide major insights into how we can remodel the immune system to help in preventing MDS transformation into AML and will impact a large subset of patients.