Investigating whether a protein in the bone marrow could help myeloma grow

Myeloma is a type of blood cancer that starts in the bone marrow (the soft spongy tissue inside some of our bones where blood cells are made). We do not yet fully understand how changes in the bone marrow contribute to the development of myeloma. Dr Molina and her team have found a protein that is present at higher levels in the bone marrow in people with myeloma. They believe it may be playing an active role in helping myeloma cells to grow and survive, and that understanding more about this could help find new ways to predict and treat the disease.

In this project, Dr Gamez Molina and her team will investigate how this protein affects myeloma cells. They will conduct experiments in the lab, using samples from people with myeloma, where they will block this protein to help them understand its role in helping the myeloma cells to grow. They will also study exactly where this protein is found within the bone marrow and see if its location is linked to where myeloma cells are found. They will measure levels of this protein in samples from people with myeloma and people with a blood condition called monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) who are at risk of developing myeloma. They hope this will help them to better understand how levels of this protein change as the disease develops.

If successful, this research could help doctors to identify who is most at risk of developing myeloma. If this protein is found to play a key role in helping the cancer grow, it could become a target for new treatments in the future that could help to slow or prevent myeloma from developing altogether.