October 31, 2012 | |
27 minutes | |
Catriona Jamieson | |
Catriona Jamieson studies the mutant stem cells and progenitor cells in myeloproliferative neoplasms, cells that can give rise to cancer stem cells. Since her discovery of candidate cancer stem cells involved in progression of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) to acute leukemia, and the molecular events involved in enhancing CML cancer stem cell proliferation and self-renewal, she has devised robust methods to detect cancer stem cells in vivo, thereby permitting a comprehensive assessment of novel cancer stem cell diagnostics and therapeutics. She has applied molecular progenitor profiling, used for the discovery of cancer stem cells in advanced phase CML, to other myeloproliferative disorders and found that a specific mutation in the JAK2 signaling molecule occurs at the stem cell level in polycythemia vera and changes cell fate decisions in primitive hematopoietic cells. Dr. Jamieson received her B.Sc. in biology-genetics, Ph.D. in microbiology, and M.D. from the University of British Columbia.