Non Hodgkin Lymphoma – Research Project
The Alex Hulme Foundation was formed on 12th October 2011 by Alex’s Mum and Dad, Nicola and Dave Hulme along with Alex’s Auntie, Brenda Jackson. Through donations made to the Alex Hulme Foundation donors will be helping towards improving the research into and the treatment of this dreadful disease and thus providing diagnosed children with a better prognosis for the future.
Many children survive this disease, over 80 per cent, but unfortunately Alex wasn’t one of them so there is still a long way to go before we reach the target of a one hundred per cent survival rate.
In this video we explain the aims we have for Alex’s legacy and set targets for the first five years.
The first target is to raise £250,000 of which £50,000 would be spent on equipment for the lab and £200,000 would be spent on setting up the lab and on the groundwork for the research project itself.
UKs only Paediatric Lymphoma Researcher Joins the Team!
In April 2012 the Alex Hulme Foundation was proud and delighted to announce an agreed collaboration with Professor Suzanne Turner, the only Paediatric Lymphoma Researcher in the UK.
It soon became apparent that our hopes were mirrored by Suzanne and that there were immediate steps that, with the help of donated funds from the Foundation, could be put into place to allow Suzanne to set up and develop a pioneering research project to investigate B-Cell Non Hodgkin Lymphoma.
The work would focus on the causes and the treatments needed to provide children with not only more individualised treatment protocols but most importantly a better outcome in life.
We were proud to announce that on 22nd June 2012, the Foundation made its first payment to Professor Turner to allow our research project to commence. This was a thrilling and emotional day for everyone and the realisation that we can now all say that we were making a difference.
Pioneering Research Project
Aim – Determining the identity of the paediatric B-Cell Non-Hodgkin stem cells and its chemotherapeutic sensitivity
Summary – Paediatric B-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (B-NHL) is currently treated with a combination of toxic chemotherapies and at present the event free survival stands at ~75%. This statistic shows that unfortunately some children still suffer devastating disease relapse and we believe that this is because in many cases current treatment fails to kill the source of the tumour. This research will identify the source of the tumour, the cancer stem cell which gives rise to the bulk population and is presumed to exist in a protected niche. Furthermore, this project will address the weak points of these cells that might be exploited therapeutically.
Research Objectives
1. What is the identity of cancer stem cells (CSC) in paediatric B-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (B-NHL)?
2. Are these cells spared following standard chemotherapy?
The research project allows us to provide tangible evidence of how donations will be spent, and we will be providing regular updates.
The first stage of the research project was expected to take up to five years and was expected to cost a minimum of £250,000. By raising this amount, we would ensure we are able to help Dr Turner make a massive difference for diagnosed children in the future.
In October 2013 the Foundation funded a small stipend to allow Professor Turner to take on Jackie Waller, an undergraduate degree student, as a full time assistant. Jackie worked within the Turner lab for a year carrying out research to identify the cancer stem cells within B-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Jackie made great strides forwards during her time at the lab and identified the ‘Queen Bees’ in childhood B-NHL, importantly Jackie established the techniques to look for them and so when our first patient samples arrived at the lab we were well equipped to process them. This was not an easy task but Jackie succeeded where others may have failed and this was due to her great diligence and natural aptitude for lab work.
Vital Research Equipment
The next step was to fund the purchase of vital equipment that was more expensive to buy than grants would allow and equipment that was previously borrowed from other labs at considerable time and expense. By Christmas 2013 we had paid £27,000 to buy a Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter (FACS) – Accuri C6 flow cytometer and £15,111 to purchase a Bioruptor Sonication Device.
Bioruptor Sonication Device
Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter (FACS)
Accuri C6 flow cytometer
Sorcha Forde
Jamie Matthews
Chris Steele
PhD Studentship Award
In 2013, and in conjunction with the University of Cambridge, we put in place arrangements to fund an Alex Hulme Foundation PhD Studentship Award. Being able to provide such an award is considered to be a very prestigious step forward in the world of scientific research so would attract the very highest calibre of student. The PhD student would be tasked with providing significant results for B-Cell NHL and it’s pathogenesis with those results feeding back into future trials and directly into clinic to treat patients. The student would be registered at the University of Cambridge and the Foundation would pay for the student’s fees and stipend for a three year PhD studentship. An additional fourth year could be awarded, generally in year three. The other requirement of us would be to meet consumable costs for three years as the student would be writing up their thesis in the fourth year of the PhD.
As Trustees we considered the costs of approximately £160,000 for the four year course fit with our fundraising targets.
We were pleased to announce that the Alex Hulme Foundation awarded the first PhD studentship to Sorcha Forde in 2013. Sorcha came to us having gained experience in labs in both the USA and Ireland.
In 2017 we awarded the second PhD Studentship to Jamie Matthews. Jamie would go on to spend his first year working alongside Sorcha until she graduated in 2018. Jamie would then work towards attaining his own PhD in 2022.
In 2021, Suzanne was able to secure a funded PhD student, Chris Steele, to work in the lab with Jamie. This would give Jamie time to work with Chris and finish up his publication during his final year.
The Foundation will fund the consumables costs for Chris so he can continue with the work Jamie has undertaken. Chris will also start working alongside the GLO-BNHL trial. For more information on GLO-BNHL, please visit:
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/crctu/trials/glo-bnhl
Updates on how our students are getting on and how the research programme is progressing can be found under the “Project Updates” tab.