Topic description

Background. Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) represents the most common leukemia in adults. Despite recent advances in treatments, CLL remains a deadly, incurable disease. This cancer is characterized by an accumulation of abnormal, apoptosis-resistant B lymphocytes in the blood and lymphoid organs in patients. CLL progression is highly dependent on complex interactions between tumor cells and their microenvironment, notably immune cells. We recently demonstrated that deregulation of mRNA translation is an important feature of CLL that can be targeted by specific therapies.

Objectives. This project aims to study translational control and tRNA modifications in CLL cells and immune cells of the leukemic microenvironment to characterise mRNA translation aberrations and identify novel therapeutic vulnerabilities. We demonstrated that specific tRNA modifications are crucial for disease progression and the immunosuppressive fun...