Research Focus 

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) is an extremely heterogeneous disease with subtypes of patients exhibiting a diverse range of genetic mutations. Certain subtypes of ALL can be treated with drugs already in clinical use. When undertaking her Fulbright fellowship (2016-2017) at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr Eadie trained with the global authority in genomic profiling and in vivo modelling of ALL. Since returning to Australia she has autonomously established preclinical mouse models of ALL at SAHMRI and is now leading in vivo mouse studies for high-risk ALL with a specific focus on T-cell ALL. Her research will assess targeted therapies in mouse models of ALL through ongoing generation of 1) patient derived xenografts from patient samples received in our laboratory and 2) transgenic models. This will enable the evaluation of novel and combination therapeutic approaches compared with the current standard of care. Mouse models of drug resistance will also be developed and pre-emptive intervention in the resistant disease setting investigated. These studies will ultimately inform clinical practice, impacting significantly on response to therapy and overall survival of adults and children with high-risk ALL.