Donated money is spent on new equipment, facilities to make treatment more comfortable for both patients and carers and research into methods of managing and monitoring leukaemia and related blood diseases carried out at the hospital.
ELF pays fees for PhD – Improved Patient Management will be the Outcome
Katy Hanlon Trainee Clinical Scientist
Eighteen months into her PhD studies Katy is presenting some of her work on the identification of chromosome deletions in Multiple Myeloma & CLL at this year’s ‘British Society of Haematology’ Conference in Bournemouth.
Exeter Leukaemia Fund supports Katy by paying her PhD fees through her three year course which will see her become Doctor Hanlon. The research that Katy and her colleagues undertake is directly contributing to the management of patients suffering from leukaemia and related blood disease.
One of ELF’s key objectives is to support Haematology research in the South-West to enhance the management and monitoring of patients leukaemia and related blood diseases. The support that ELF offers Katy and her colleagues is helping to achieve this ambition. ELF’s other goals include the provision of equipment and patient care.
Brought up in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, Katy gained her BSc in Biotechnology at the University of Wales in Cardiff before taking a role in Pharmaceutical Market Research based in Manchester for three years.
It was through this work that Katy developed an interest in Haematology. She was keen to develop this interest further in the research setting. “I wanted an opportunity in research science that would allow me to gain new skills that I could use to support the improvement of patient care. By supporting my work, ELF is helping me to achieve this”. Throughout her studies Katy is being supported by Professor Sian Ellard, a Consultant Molecular Geneticist and Dr. Claudius Rudin, a Consultant in the Haematology Centre at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
Over the last eighteen months Katy has worked on the development of a novel, sensitive test for the detection of DNA mutations in a gene called JAK2 in patients with myeloproliferative disorders. This work has recently been published in the ‘Journal of Molecular Diagnostics’. Katy is also working on a project involving the use of a novel molecular biology technique to identify common regions of chromosome 13 deletions in patients with CLL and Multiple Myeloma. It is hoped that this work will identify candidate tumour suppressor genes that may be important in the development of these diseases. Katy has already presented this work to the South West Haematology Group (The Blood Club) and will be presenting it at the national conference in Bournemouth in May.
Just back from holiday on the Red Sea where she gained her PADI Open Water Diving Certificate, Katy lives in Exeter and plays Netball for a local team. She is also currently training for the Great West Run.
For more information please contact the ELF office on (01392) 493344.
Release date: 12th March 2007