Clinician-scientist Bethan Psaila joined Ludwig Oxford as an associate member in the fall, bringing to the Branch her considerable expertise on myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), slow-growing blood cancers that originate in the bone marrow. An Associate Professor of Hematology at the University of Oxford, Beth also sees patients at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, where she is a regional specialist caring for MPN patients and leads clinical trials focusing on novel immunotherapies for these cancers. Beth’s lab explores the interactions between blood stem cells, megakaryocytes/platelets and the bone marrow stroma in both the healthy generation of blood cells (hematopoiesis) and in cancers. Its work focuses on studying primary samples from patients and complex human tissue models (organoids) to discover and validate new strategies to selectively target the cancer clone and prevent or treat progression to myelofibrosis—an advanced form of MPN that has a median survival of only 5-7 years following diagnosis. Beth and her team also explore intriguing aspects of megakaryocyte and platelet biology—for example, how megakaryocytes develop and tolerate multiple copies of their nuclear genome and the utility of platelets for liquid biopsies—and its implications for human cancers. Prior to Oxford, Beth trained at Clare College, Cambridge, Imperial College London/The Hammersmith Hospital, Cornell Medical College in New York and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
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