Meet Rosie. A spunky 4 year old girl diagnosed with stage IV Wilms tumour (childhood kidney cancer) in Singapore last year. Rosie is an absolute warrior taking on intensive chemotherapy cycles, and multiple hospital visits, needles and discomfort that went with it. Fortunately, her cancer showed a good response to chemotherapy, and she had a major surgery to remove her kidney and part of the lung, followed by more maintenance chemotherapy, and is in remission now.

However, even after completing all she developed a severe persistent anaemia that requires ongoing blood transfusions. A genetic analysis revealed a mutation in a gene called RPS19, which has previously been linked to a rare bone marrow disease called Diamond-Blackfan Anaemia, for which there is no standard treatment.

Professor Toshio Suda and Dr. Anand Jeyasekharan are leading a team of scientists at the Cancer Science Institute to work on RPS19 mutations in blood stem cells, with a hope to discover where currently available drugs could reverse anaemia caused by this mutation. Prof Toshio Suda is a world-renowned scientist specializing in blood stem cells, and the team are working to use CRISPR- based technology to introduce Rosie’s unique mutation into normal blood stem cells. The team will then aim to run a large drug screen comparing mutant vs normal cells.

Rosie's favourite animal is the unicorn. Come join Rosie's team "Rosie’s Unicorns", as we aim to raise $25,000 to figure out how to treat her and children like her. All donations will be used to support the research of Prof Suda on RPS19 mutations.

Join Rosie's Unicorn