Presenters: Megan Osmus & Sebastian Salazar
Poster Description: T- cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia T-ALL) is the most prevailing cancer affecting children. It affects adults as well but not to the same extent as children. While there is currently an 80% cure rate for children, there is still a high probability for relapse and infiltration of the central nervous system (CNS). This infiltration of the CNS makes this disease difficult to treat. Existing treatment plans consist of cranial irradiation or intrathecal chemotherapy which can leave children with cognitive complications. The hypothesis we are testing is that key genes (including pathways involved in regulating autophagy and metabolism) underlie T-ALL CNS disease. Genes were tested for differential expression for CNS and non-CNS groups. In addition, co-expression of genes was determined by computing the Pearson R coefficient between pairs of genes.