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Show 118 Katie Cole school of medicine and health sciences T-cells are a type of human blood cell that aid with fighting disease and therefore, are paramount to sur-vival. T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-ALL) is a cancer formed by a proliferation of abnormal T-cells, resulting in the formation of tumors. This cancer compromises T-cells ability to fight infection and there-fore makes the body more susceptible to disease. This project uses a transgenic zebrafish (Danio rerio) model for conducting pre-clinical trials of investi-gational drugs for T-ALL treatment and prevention. To be able to identify fish with T-ALL, the zebrafish express Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) in their T-cells, which illuminates T-cells via fluorescent micros-copy. Fish with disease are identified by large GFP+ tumors in the area of the thymus or, if the disease is advanced, have GFP distributed throughout the body. Fish without disease display GFP localized to their normal-sized thymus. Valproic Acid is an experimental drug identified by the Hunstman Cancer Institute as a possible T-ALL treatment. We hypothesized that Valproic Acid would be successful in preventing the return of T-ALL after treatment with radiation. To determine this, fish with the disease were housed in two separate tanks and both were given radiation therapy. Post-radiation, one tank was given Valproic Acid while the other tank remained a control group receiving no additive. At the conclusion of this experiment we expect that the fish in the tank containing Valproic Acid will have little to no tumors, while the fish in the tank with no additive will have their tumors return. If we are able to conclusively prove that Valproic Acid can prevent the return of T-ALL post-radiation in the zebrafish model without toxic effects, it is pos-sible that Valproic acid could be used to prevent the return of T-ALL after radiation therapy in humans. PREVENTION OF T-CELL ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKEMIA (T-ALL) IN ZEBRAFISH (DANIO RERIO) POST-RADIATION Katie Cole (John Kimble Frazer) Departments of Pediatrics and Oncological Sciences University of Utah UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ABSTRACTS John Kimble Frazer |