The QMUL team based at Barts Cancer Institute (BCI) in London comprises Professor Fitzgibbon, Dr Okosun and Dr Wang and are focused on the B cell malignancy follicular lymphoma (FL). Professor Jude Fitzgibbon, leads the UK (and FL) hub and is responsible for coordinating research to understand the incurable nature of this indolent malignancy and the population of pre-malignant B cells responsible for seeding new episodes of disease and how these are impacted by the tumour microenvironment.

Collaborators:

Jude Fitzgibbon, Jessica Okosun, Jun Wang, Kevin Roault-Pierre, Eve Coulter, Megan Perrett, Connor Knight

Dr Brian Huntly is leading the efforts from the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. The institute will be researching follicular lymphoma – generating mouse models for this disease.

Collaborators:

Brian Huntly, Nathalie Sakakini

The Leeds team includes, Dr Roger Owen, Professor Reuben Tooze and Dr Matthew Care and is focused on plasma cell neoplasms, that derive from the terminal effector cells of the B-cell/humoral immune system. The team aims to understand the transition between normal and neoplastic plasma cells, specifically using tools to dissect patterns of gene regulation that identify functional states in normal and neoplastic plasma cells and that reflect interaction of the plasma cell with its microenvironment. Ultimately the goal is to derive tests that identify transitions in plasma cell state in early and minimal disease states.

Collaborators:

Roger Owen, Reuben Tooze, Matthew Care

The team based at the Francis Crick Institute in London is composed of Dr Dinis Calado and Dr Lingling Zhang and is focused on the development of pre-clinical models of follicular lymphoma through genetic manipulation of mice. Once established, these model systems will be used for testing future therapeutics in follicular lymphoma.

Collaborators:

Dinis Calado, Ling-Ling Zheng