Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) is one of the most common cancers in children. While this type of malignancy is found in both children and adults, childhood (c) B-ALL differs from the disease in adults with higher incidence, better prognosis but also a specific mutational spectrum. These facts suggest differences in the underlying biology and in the initiation of the disease between adults and children. Many of the initiating mutations in cALL have been shown to occur already during fetal life. The targeted cells form a pre-leukemic clone, pre-disposed to develop leukemia when encountering additional mutations. How the leukemia process initiates is poorly understood and cALL offers a unique possibility to study this since many of the initiating mutations are known. The main focus of the lab is to understand how the leukemia starts: the origin of the pre-leukemic clone and the molecular pathways which regulate the initiation of the disease.

Charlotta Böiers is Research Group Leader for this research group