A UNIVERSITY of York scientist has been granted £1.2m in new funding from Cancer Research UK to carry out research for six years into a specific kind of blood cancer.

Dr Ian Hitchcock, lecturer in biomedical sciences in York’s department of biology, will investigate myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) - a group of blood cancers that cause the over-production of red blood cells and platelets.

There are over 3,000 new MPN cases diagnosed in the UK each year and the majority of these occur in older people.

Unfortunately, current treatments for MPNs focus more on reducing patients’ symptoms rather than treating the disease itself.

Dr Hitchcock said: “There are a limited number of curative treatment options available to people with MPNs.

“With this funding from Cancer Research UK we hope to change this.

"We will use truly groundbreaking technologies to answer questions about MPNs which previously would have been impossible and use these answers to develop new, targeted treatments.

“This award is critical for our research at York. It will allow us to make key new findings in the field of blood cancers and hopefully help patients lead better lives and survive longer. It’s very exciting and I can’t wait to get going.”

Dr Hitchcock will work with fellow researchers in York and scientists in Leeds and Sheffield hospitals, Newcastle University, Osnabruck University in Germany and structural biologists from Stanford University, USA.

He will study how mistakes in the JAK2 gene, which are found in many MPN cases, activate the cells in the bone marrow that produce red blood cells and platelets, promoting development of these diseases.

The aim is to use these new insights to develop targeted treatments for MPNs that treat the underlying biology of this group of cancers and so have the potential to halt disease development and progression.

Dr Áine McCarthy, Senior Science Information Officer at Cancer Research UK said: “Without understanding the fundamental biology of MPNs, progress in treating the disease can’t be made. Research like Dr Hitchcock’s will provide us with a much needed insight into MPNs and will underpin the development of new treatments in the future.”