Approved Research

Association between high penetrance cancer susceptibility mutations and clonal hematopoiesis

Lay summary

Recent studies in healthy individuals have shown that as we age, it is common to develop changes in our DNA. This commonly occurs in the blood and is called clonal hematopoiesis (CH). CH is associated with an elevated risk of blood cancers, cardiovascular disease and other diseases. We know that the likelihood of developing CH is in part inherited (passed down from our parents) . Understanding how inherited genetics influences CH would provide insight into the biology of the earliest stages of blood cancer formation. Here we will use the UK Biobank data to identify genes that predispose healthy people to develop CH.