I’mStill – The Researchers

Every day, three people in Northern Ireland are diagnosed with a blood cancer. 

James Smith and Cliona Johnston work tirelessly to find a cure for blood cancers that will reduce this shocking statistic. 

The Ph.D Scholarship students are part of a team at Queen’s University who research blood cancers every day. Their work gives survivors, like those whose stories we have shared over the past fewmonths, life after blood cancer. 

Cliona’s work concentrates on Myeloma research and focuses on inhibitors for a group of proteins called TRIM E3 ligases which could eventually become new remedies. Meanwhile James is focused on understanding the role of gene mutations in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia with the aim of developing inhibitors which could be translated into treatment. 

They have one unified goal between them – to find a cure.