Homeostasis vs Stress

Stresses include: infection, parasitic wasps, starvation, hypoxia, injury, disease, aging, inflammation, etc.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

When the balance between proliferation and differentiation goes awry. What causes AML and how do these immature blood cells cause havoc (do they play an active role in disease progression or simply crowd out healthy cells from the hematopoietic tissue)? Classic definition of AML is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow where immature white blood cells rapidly multiply, crowding out healthy blood cells. We utilize Drosophila as a model system to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that control AML disease formation and progression by expressing various genetic mutations that cause disease and characterizing their impact on the blood system. Using our live, whole-body in vivo imaging system, we can observe how the disease progresses over time and monitor its effects on other tissues in the body. We can also combine AML induction in the blood with genetic manipulations in other tissues with orthogonal methods to determine what interventions may exacerbate or reverse disease progression.