Research
The Myeloma Laboratory at UCL aims to bring scientific endeavour to the clinic for patient benefit. Myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells that expand in the bone marrow, causing bone marrow failure and bone destruction. Despite considerable therapeutic advances, myeloma remains incurable and most patients will die of their cancer.

Our work seeks to understand the role of the bone marrow microenvironment in promoting tumour growth and drug resistance, including mechanisms of immune dysfunction. Our research has a strong translational focus to develop new anti-myeloma therapies, including cellular immunotherapies, and to advance early detection strategies for myeloma. Myeloma is a genomically and biologically complex tumour, and we seek to discover new biomarkers for drug sensitivity and response to novel therapies. Our work utilises disease models such as cellular co-cultures, ex-vivo and in-vivo models, and these are interrogated using functional assays, high dimensional flow cytometry, CyTOF, immunohistochemistry, next generation sequencing and genetic modification.

We work closely with the large clinical service at UCLH, and with national NCRN studies to interrogate the drivers of disease resistance and relapse, the benefit of early stem cell transplantation and the role of immunotherapeutic strategies in deepening disease response in the Myeloma XV trial in newly diagnosed patients.

The Myeloma Immunotherapy group is led by Dr Lydia Lee. Current work is focused on optimising cellular therapies through improved understanding of the marrow immune environment, by interrogating patient bone marrow, and by using immune competent murine models. Refinement of CAR-T approaches, and exploration of novel targets remains at the forefront of our work. Work is also focused on the role of immune dysfunction and progression of myeloma. Recent work in newly diagnosed MM patients reveal the presence of dysfunctional marrow resident effector cells that influence clinical outcomes, and we are investigating the role of changes in bone marrow immune function when patients progress from smouldering to active symptomatic multiple myeloma.