Model analysis of clonal competition processes in development and treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)

Competition processes between normal and malignant cells can be observed in many hematopoietic disorders. The mechanisms underlying these processes are largely unknown. There is evidence that the competition is controlled by dynamic regulation processes at the level of hematopoietic stem cells which are influenced by cell - cell and cell - stroma interactions. As shown previously, clonal competition processes in animal systems can be explained using a mathematical stem cell model, based on the concept of within-tissue plasticity. This model will be applied and adopted to the human situation. It will be tested whether it is able to describe and explain the observed competition processes. A validated version of the model shall allow to simulate the development of the disease as well as different scenarios for treatment strategies. Using these simulation analyses we hope to achieve a deeper understanding of the malignant abnormalities of leukemic cells and to contribute to a model-based optimization of therapy schemes.

Project leader

Staff

• Prof. Dr. Markus Loeffler
• Prof. Dr. Ingo Roeder
• Matthias Horn
• Maria Herberg