Koala bears and cancer cells - how our Hangout had good news in the fight against leukemia

What does a Koala bear have to do with finding more effective treatments for leukemia? Well, Dr. Catriona Jamieson says the connection is really quite simple and she explained it in our Google Hangout on Leukemia yesterday. It's quite a fun story.

Dr. Jamieson is the Director of Stem Cell Research at the Moore Cancer Center at the University of California San Diego and a number of her research projects are already in clinical trials in patients. She talked about the results they’ve seen so far, and their hopes for the future.

We were also fortunate to have Dr. Ravi Majeti of Stanford University. Dr. Majeti and his team are working on a new approach that targets cancerous stem cells in acute myeloid leukemia and is hopefully going to be in clinical trials later this year.

Those two scientists represent the most advanced stage of the research we are funding. Dr. Karen Berry – a Science Officer here at the stem cell agency – walked us through some of the other really exciting work we are supporting that is at an earlier stages of development.

 Between the three of them they painted an optimistic look at the state of stem cell research into leukemia, the progress we are making, and the obstacles we still have to overcome.

You can watch the full California stem cell agency Google Hangout on Leukemia on our YouTube Channel. And of course feel free to share this link with anyone you think might be interested.

kevin mccormack