Profiling clonal hematopoiesis in cancer survivors with single-cell DNA sequencing

St. Jude’s has been treating pediatric cancer for approximately 60 years. Studies have shown that alkylating agents cause mispairings and further mutagenesis, which is associated with cardiac dysfunction and other chronic health conditions. Dr. Gawad’s lab has been working on using single-cell DNA sequencing, which can provide a high-resolution view of the clonal diversity present in our hematopoietic cells as we age, in addition to the occurrence of co-mutations. The hope is to obtain new insight into chronic medical conditions of childhood cancer survivors.