Dr Suruchi Pacharne

Technical Specialist

Technical lead of the Immunology and Inflamation therapy arm of the Open Targets Validation Lab

Exploring the relationship between the gene and it's function in blood cells.

I am interested in understanding the genetic and epigenetic role of genes associated with abnormalities of the blood cells such as leukaemia and immune diseases.

I came to Sanger in 2015 for my postdoctoral fellowship with Dr George Vassilliou, where my research focussed on identifying the genetic aberration that collaborate with FLT3-ITD mutations to establish an acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in the absence of class defining mutations in the genes such as chimeric fusions and NPM1, MLL and RUNX1 mutations. Employing a multi-dimensional screening approach that comprised insertional mutagenesis and genome wide CRISPR-Cas9 editing, this work identified a new subclass of human FLT3-ITD AML which is driven by over-expression of the SETBP1 gene. I also investigated synthetic lethality in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and AMLs  driven by mutations in the spliceosomal genes such as SF3B1, SRSF2 and U2AF1 and molecular mechanisms involved in the genetic occurrence patterns of NPM1 mutant AMLs.

Since 2022, I have been leading the Immunology and Inflammation experimental platform in the Open Targets Validation Lab, in Sanger where we perform systematic, orthogonal, high-throughput validation of the immune targets identified by the meticulous and ambitious Open Targets projects with an aim to increase industrial uptake of the targets for drug discovery.

My timeline