Grant: Operating Grant

When a pregnant women 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 is known to cause toxicity to the blood system and has been associated with an increase in childhood leukemias. Oncogenes are genes that have become altered in some way, leading to aberrant signalling pathways in cells, 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 various oncogenes and pathways using 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 develop safer therapeutics and potential therapeutic approaches to treat pregnant who may have been exposed to toxicants. In addition, results from this project will help guide policy for the use and exposure to benzene and other chemicals that might act the same way.