Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified an enzyme that helps trigger the development of leukemia, a cancer of blood cells.The enzyme hDOT1L activates a set of genes that plays a key role in the rare and largely incurable acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This disease affects less than 2 percent of the estimated 16,000 individuals diagnosed with acute leukemia nationwide each year.The discovery, based on research using bone marrow cells from mice, offers a potential target for new drugs against this form of leukemia, the researchers said.The new findings appear in the April 21, 2005 issue of the journal Cell. The report demonstrates that hDOT1L helps transform, or immortalize, bone marrow cells, causing their unrestrained growth, a hallmark of leukemia, the researchers said.Dr. Yi Zhang, associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics at UNC's School of Medicine and a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, led the study. Zhang is the university's firs...