Prof Ian Morison and research fellow Robert Weeks, from the University of Otago Department of Pathology, have received a grant of $150,000 over two years to continue their work into how the shut-down of a gene called TES - a shut-down which occurs in almost all cases of the blood disorder childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) - might be reversed.
ALL affects about 30 children a year.
The grant will enable them to begin looking at the behaviour of the TES gene in mice and in zebrafish which have been bred overseas to develop "childhood" leukaemia.
They are in the process of importing three breeding pairs of mice from a UK research facility, and about 100 zebrafish embryos from a similar facility in the United States.
Prof Morison said yesterday the "grandiose aim" was to use the research to develop new treatments for ALL.
But the first step was to prove there was a definite link between the shut-down of the TES gene and the onset of leukaemia, and to find ways of reversing that shut-down.
He said Mr Weeks had made "an enormous contribution" to the discovery that the silencing of the TES gene occurred in almost all cases of ALL.
A link between the TES gene and stomach cancer had earlier been reported by overseas researchers.
Mr Weeks said he had never worked with zebrafish before and was looking forward to doing so.
Zebrafish are a popular research subject for biologists because their embryos develop in transparent eggshells outside the mother's body, meaning cell development and gene abnormalities can be observed from the time of conception.
Their lifespan is about two years.
The researchers plan to breed more zebrafish from the US imports and eventually expect to have several hundred in their study.
They also plan to breed from the UK mice.
Prof Morison said the zebrafish part of the research project had also been supported by a grant from Cure Kids.
Mr Weeks said news of the cancer society grant was "fantastic".
"The other grant we had would have run out this month, so it is great timing."
Two other groups of researchers from the University of Otago have also received cancer society grants.
Associate Prof Christine Morris and Dr Ursula Jewell, part of the Cancer Genetics Research Group based at the university's Christchurch campus, have been granted $200,000 over two years to continue their work using modern DNA profiling technology to examine molecular and genetic changes associated with leukaemia, while Dr Ryuji Fukuzawa and Prof Anthony Reeve, from the Dunedin-based Cancer Genetics Laboratory, receive $50,000 to investigate why an identical genetic mutation can cause the growth of Wilms tumours in some children's kidneys but not in others.
A total of nine new grants worth $1.2 million were announced yesterday.
The society was spending $7.3 million to support more two research units and than 30 research projects, president Russell McElroy said. allison.rudd@odt.co.nz
