Grant description: Low blood counts due to bone marrow failure are a common complication of Fanconi anemia (FA) which affect health and quality of life. Metformin improves blood counts in mice with FA and may protect against DNA damage. Laboratory studies suggest that Metformin may...
Supported Research
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Excessive toxicity from chemotherapy and radiation makes treatment for SCC in FA quite challenging and leads to dismal outcomes, in fact fatal outcomes in most patients. Thus, there is clearly a need for a new approach both for prevention and/or treatment that has fewer and...
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Eighty percent of FA patients survive beyond age 20, carry a high risk for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oropharyngeal and anogenital regions connected with high morbidity and mortality. In addition to intrinsic genetic instability, HSCT and a number of other factors contribute to...
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Fanconi anemia (FA) patients are at exceptionally high risk of developing epithelial cancers. We aim to identify features of these cancers that provide new insight into their origins, and better ways to treat these cancers in the context of FA patients. As part of this...
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As a monogenic blood disorder with potential survival disadvantage, Fanconi anemia has long been considered an attractive target for conventional gene therapy but success has been elusive. Consequently, there has been increasing interest in developing techniques to catalyze correction of the disease-causing mutation at the...
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My lab has developed a rapid and efficacious Cas9-based approach to introduce programmed sequence changes to human cells with ease. This work takes advantage of our discovery that Cas9 is extremely long-lived on its target DNA, yet releases a flap of single stranded DNA after...
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Current therapy for FA is limited to allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT), a process associated with significant morbidity and mortality, particularly when an ideally matched donor is not readily available. Therefore, novel therapies that improve or replace SCT are needed. Progress in FA therapy has...
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By virtue of their inability to repair a specific form of DNA damage, persons with Fanconi Anemia (FA) are appreciably more susceptible to development of certain cancers. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), which arises from the lining cells of the mouth, occurs at >500 fold...
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The objective of this proposal is to conduct a pilot study of metformin to treat FA. This pilot study will explore whether Metformin is safe and efficacious in improving hematopoiesis in patients with Fanconi Anemia. We will focus on pediatric and young adult patients with...
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Fanconi anemia (FA) patients suffer from progressive bone marrow failure due to the defective hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in their bone marrow. The mechanisms of why the HSCs in FA patients are defective remain elusive. Recent studies suggest that DNA damage induced by physiological stress...
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Czechowicz lab at Stanford Promising research needs continued support to answer the next question. A laboratory finding may need testing in more models. A screening study may need years of follow-up. An approach ready for a clinical study needs the...
How can we prevent cancer in people with FA? How can treatments become safer? At the 2026 FA Scientific Symposium in Phoenix, researchers shared progress toward answering these questions, alongside work to protect blood-forming cells and better understand the broader effects of FA. Some approaches are entering clinical studies. Others are helping researchers decide which ideas deserve further testing.
More than four decades ago, Lynn Frohnmayer was a mother searching for answers after learning that three of her five children had Fanconi anemia. There was no roadmap and no established network of families or experts. Information was scarce, treatments were limited, and the future her family had been given was devastating.