Functional exploration of the leukemic niche of residual disease in the bone marrow

The treatment of patients with refractory or relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is challenging. To improve chemotherapy for ALL it is important to understand the reasons for resistance and to find strategies to decrease the residual disease. Since ALL cells are dependent on interactions with the microenvironment the characterization of specific signaling events between leukemic blasts and their niche may identify new therapeutic targets for chemotherapy. Using our established xenotransplantation approach, which faithfully recapitulates the human disease in mice, we have generated a model of minimal resi…