Grant: Project Grant

When a pregnant woman is exposed to therapeutic drugs or environmental chemicals, her unborn child may be at increased risk for the development of cancer after birth. Benzene is one of the most heavily used chemicals in the world and has been associated with an increase in childhood leukemias. Benzene exposure can cause DNA damage which may lead to problems in the mechanism of how cells communicate (cell signalling), which ultimately may lead to cancer. I am proposing to study the ways in which benzene disrupts the development of early hematopoiesis (blood cell formation) by looking at DNA repair and signalling pathways in a mouse model. Using this model we have already shown that in utero exposure of pregnant mice to benzene leads to an increase in cancer incidence in the offspring. We now want to use this model to determine how this occurs in order to understand the regulatory pathways involved. Understanding how drugs and environmental chemicals cause toxicity to the developing fetus will help us create more effective monitoring strategies and improve human health assessments, which will ultimately increase the prevention of childhood cancers.