CCBIO-seminar – Stein-Erik Gullaksen
Velkommen til CCBIOs seminarserie for vårsemesteret 2025. Åpent for alle i auditorium 4, BBB. Ikke nødvendig med påmelding. Foreleser er Stein-Erik Gullaksen ved CCBIO/UiB, om emnet "Deep single cell immune and signaling profiling hours after starting treatment predict response to treatment in patients with Chronic myeloid leukemia".
Hovedinnhold
Foreleser: Stein-Erik Gullaksen.
Tittel: Deep single cell immune and signaling profiling hours after starting treatment predict response to treatment in patients with Chronic myeloid leukemia
Vert: Bjørn Tore Gjertsen
Sted: Auditorium 4, BB-bygget
Når: 24. april 2025 kl. 14.30-15.30
Påmelding er ikke nødvendig.
Sammendrag: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative stem cell disorder driven by a single molecular abnormality that arises from a reciprocal translocation fusing the Breakpoint Cluster Region (BCR) gene Abelson (ABL) gene. The resulting BCR::ABL1 protein is a constitutively activated tyrosine kinase that drives uncontrolled growth of myeloid cells in the bone marrow. CML is effectively treated with small molecule BCR::ABL1 inhibitors, and up to 20% of the patients reach treatment-free remission after 5-7 years. Most patients require lifelong daily TKI treatment, with treatment side effects reducing quality of life at significant socioeconomic costs.
Using mass cytometry, we profiled single cells from longitudinal peripheral blood samples from patients CML enrolled in two international clinical trials. We found that treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) inhibited intracellular signaling in patients as early as one hour after the first dose. Each TKI had a unique signaling signature reflecting its kinase specificity profile. Using machine learning algorithms, we were able to predict the response to treatment after one year based on these early measurements.
We envision that early single cell immune and signaling profiling may in the future within days rather than months be used to for treatment optimization, securing optimal response and limiting toxicity.
Biosketch: Stein-Erik Gullaksen holds an M.S. in Nanotechnology from the University of Bergen (UiB) and defended his PhD at the UiB in 2018, focusing on high dimensional single cell analysis of blood samples using mass cytometry. This work was performed under the supervision of Professor Bjørn Tore Gjertsen. Gullaksen continues this work in his current postdoctoral position at the Medical Department, Helse Bergen HF, and is associated with the K.G. Jebsen Centre for Myeloid Blood Cancer (C-MYC) and the Centre of Cancer Biomarkers (CCBIO).