Posts Tagged ‘acute myeloid leukemia’

JAK2+ | Conversant

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

The JAK2 (Janus Kinase 2) is becoming very relevant in ongoing cancer studies, mainly in the area of myeloproliferative disorders (MPD’s). These disorders can be classified as diseases where the bone marrow produces excess cells. Coincidentally, many MPD’s are related and often evolve into cancers such as acute myeloid leukemia. Polycythemia vera (PV), one of the more common MPD’s, is a brand of MPD in which the bone marrow produces too many red blood cells.

Amazingly, recent research has shown a mutation in the JAK2, ties all of the above information together. Multiple research facilities recently observed a mutation recognized now as JAK2 V617F, more commonly called the JAK2+ mutation. Many researchers are in agreement that a major breakthrough in MPD therapeutics can be discovered by further understanding this JAK2+ mutation.

Currently, JAK2+ inhibitors are being tested in vitro and through clinical trials. By providing clients with specimens known to be JAK2+ we feel we are fueling advances in MPD’s and PV studies. If you have any questions or comments about our JAK2+ samples please feel to leave a comment or fill out the form to the left

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Human CD19+ B Cells in CLL | Tips and Tricks | Conversant

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Today we hosted Mike Warnement, our regional technical sales representative from STEMCELL Technologies. Mike was a great resource to us as we further refine our primary cell isolation methods from periperal blood mononuclear cells (“PMBC”) and bone marrow mononuclear cells (“BMMC”) for Chronic Lymphoid Leukemia (“CLL”) specimens.

Because we can collect fresh whole blood and fresh bone marrow samples from Chronic Lymphoid Leukemia patients and deliver them overnight, we get a lot of requests for CLL. We’re also getting more and more requests for isolation of PBMC, BMMC, but also CD19+ B Cells from CLL patients. We not only can deliver CD19+ B Cells with over 96% purity, but we also extract DNA, RNA, and fix B Cells upon request.

We were also glad to have Prof. Catherine Sanders, a research investigator from Dr. Jian Han’s Lab, join us in our lab as we worked through our quality assurance protocols for enumeration, purity, and CD19+ B Cell specificity. Their work has often included our primary cells in the areas of hematology, cancer, and lupus.

Using a variety of STEMCELL’s technologies, we’re fast on our way to isolating wide varieties of primary cells from CLL, Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, and other diseased cells and normal cells.

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AML PBMCs used to blueprint cancer genetics | Conversant

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Emily, one of our lab scientists, ran across a very interesting article today published by the BBC entitled “Cancer genetic blueprint revealed”. In the article a team from The Washington University identified 10 gene mutations which appeared key to the development of the woman’s Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (also known as “AML”, “Acute Myelogenous Leukemia”, or Acute Myeloid Leukemia”), fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow.

We find this type of research fascinating and pretty exciting for a number of reasons.

1. We’re collaborating on several leukemia-related cancer genetics projects – particularly in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (“CML”) – with researchers from both industry and academia. Thorough our collaborations with the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (“HudsonAlpha” or “HAIB”), we look forward to helping them contribute to the understanding of the genetic diversity of cancer. To read more about HudsonAlpha, visit the Myers lab (lead by P.I. Rick Myers, Ph.D.) and The Han lab (lead by P.I. Jian Han, M.D., Ph.D.).
2. Through our research in leukemia (AML, CML, and CLL primarily) and affiliation with HudsonAlpha, we’ve also had the opportunity to get to know geneticist Dr. Francis Collins, a former director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute. Dr. Collins continues to lead the genetics field with his work and it is great to see his interest in this article.
3. We’re continuing to see the strong push in all areas of discovery science toward the use of primary cells versus cell lines. As it continues to be proven, primary cells are advantageous because primary cells (peripheral blood mononuclear cells and bone marrow mononuclear cells) better represent disease diversity in discovery research in AML, CML, CLL, PV, and other conditions.

We hope to see more articles, more research, and more discoveries in AML (and other leukemias) in the near future.

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