A New Way To Detect More Cancers Earlier

As the world’s attention is focused on COVID-19, what effect is this having on cancer research and clinical activity?

In this interview, Marcus Walker and Matthew Donora from Open Cell, a collaborative lab facility based in London's Shepherd's Bush, discuss how they plan to help increase the UK's COVID-19 testing capacity by tens of thousands of tests per day.

When a cell divides to make new cells, the chromosomes normally stay the same. But sometimes mistakes happen. With Philadelphia positive leukemia, a gene called the ABL1 gene on chromosome 9 breaks off and sticks to a gene called the BCR gene on chromosome 22. It produces a new gene called BCR-ABL1 which causes the cell to make too much of a protein called tyrosine kinase. This protein encourages leukemia cells to grow and multiply.