Researchers working on an incurable blood cancer can now use a new lab model that could make testing potential new treatments and diagnostics easier and quicker, new research has found.

In a paper published in Nature Communications, a team of researchers led by the University of Birmingham has studied blood cells from patients with a blood cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome disease (MDS). This disease often develops into a highly aggressive form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Working with this new model has led to confirmation that a mutation in the gene CEBPA causes progression from MDS to AML.