Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia VH-Gene Mutations

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia(CLL) is a type of cancer of the white blood cells, specifically B cells. In working for a lab who’s primary research focused on the study and understanding of this condition, I worked with a colleague to investigate the potential of a new diagnostic marker. Why is this important?

When it comes to health, early diagnosis usually provides the greatest chance of survival and in some cases the fastest recovery times. To this end, our focus was to find a minimally-invasive method to provide early diagnostic information for patients predisposed for CLL or for patients who were suspected of CLL but it was too early in the timeline to see normal diagnostic markers. Existing methods were either extremely invasive to the patients and were no small matter or were too far down the cancer progression timeline to be of greater assistance.

We used patients that were known to have CLL and tested the DNA of their white blood B Cells for genetic markers in the VH-gene, which allows such cells to have variablity in combating foreign invaders and providing immune support. At the time of our research, we were only beginning a database that could serve to provide helpful diagnostic material to physicians should a linked pattern in the genetic information prove significant.

We recieved weekly samples of patients and after proper process would label and categorize these results into a excel sheet to be uploaded into a larger database of shared information. I can not share the data as it is hipaa protected, but we were seeing promising results with a few key genes.

More information can be found here: KippsLabUCSD.