We are delighted to announce Professor Susan Branford, SA Pathology and Centre for Cancer Biology in Adelaide as the 2021 Rowley Prize winner. This annual prize awarded by the International CML Foundation recognises outstanding contributions to the understanding of the biology of CML.
Sue is a leading international authority on molecular monitoring for CML and a major contributor to international collaborative initiatives to establish guidelines and recommendations for producing reliable molecular data.
Her research focuses on molecular analysis of patients with CML treated with TKI therapy to investigate the factors that predict for treatment response and the mechanisms of drug resistance. These analyses include monitoring the levels of BCR-ABL1 mRNA as a precise indictor of leukemic cell reduction and resistance assessment by mutation analysis of the BCR-ABL1 kinase domain. This work has been incremental in understanding the mechanisms of resistance and in governing therapeutic decisions.
