Hong Qian new Professor at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge

Congratulations on your professorship! What does this title mean to you? 

"This means a great recognition of my contribution to the leukemia research and education, a privilege and great encouragement for me as a scientist."

What is your role at MedH?

"My main role at MedH is performing high standard qualitative research in leukemia microenvironment with the goal of finding better treatment options for the patients with leukemias including acute and chronic myeloid leukemia (AML and CML). In addition, it is my responsibility to foster a nurturing educational environment for everyone in my group and the research center HERM and MedH."

Tell us about your research group

"My group currently consists of 7 members of 7 different country origins: 2 PhD students, 3 research assistants, one research specialist and a professor emerita. We have very open research environment. We embrace cultural diversity and critical minds. Most importantly, we have the common mission – to uncover the key molecules that contribute to microenvironmental protection of blood cancer stem cells and can also serve as therapeutic target to eradicate the cancer stem cells, the root cause of the disease relapse."

What is the group focusing on right now?

"We are focusing on identifying key the molecular pathways that mediate the protective interactions between blood cancer stem cells and their niches in AML and CML."

"We will achieve our goals by first finding out the niche factors that are altered in the patients with AML or CML, and then functionally evaluate their therapeutic effects or/and prognostic values. we will do this by using both mouse models and patient materials."

What do you wish to achieve with your research? 

"We wish to find several new candidate therapeutic targets that can be translated in the clinic in the future to overcome the current treatment challenges - drug resistance and relapse."

"I am very grateful for all the support from HERM and MedH that contributes to our ability to achieve these goals. HERM has been a fantastic research and training niche for me and my team to develop in. I hope to continue to contribute to both research and education in my new role as Professor."