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ASTA Awards Grant to UALR Researcher for Leukemia Cure Search

1 min read

The Arkansas Science & Technology Authority has awarded $50,000 to researcher Darin Jones of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to fund his research to develop a cure for leukemia.

The funding, which comes from ASTA’s Basic Research Grant Program, will aid Jones’ research which centers on a molecule found in Ecuadorian plants called dehydroleucodine. 

Historically, it was used as an anti-inflammatory and treatment for skin infections, but Jones is working to take that to the next level.

“Dehydroleucodine exhibits anti-leukemia activity against eight different cell lines of the disease,” he said. “When you consider that 50,000 new cases of leukemia are reported every year, and half of those cases result in fatalities, the necessity for this kind of research becomes clear.” 

Jones claims that dehydroleucodine has shown greater resistance to leukemia cells than current forms of treatment being tested in in Phase II clinical trials.  

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