Translational Breast Cancer Research Trainees, 2003

 

Dr. Timoshenko

Dr. Timoshenko received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the National Academy of Sciences in Belarus. He is working with Dr. P.K. Lala as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Western Ontario. He will study a new idea for possible combination therapy to prevent breast cancer progression in mice, with hopes that his results will lead to testing the approach in a clinical trial in breast cancer patients.

 

Mira Ray

Mira (Rao) Ray will receive her PhD in Experimental Pathology from the University of British Columbia in early 2004, and will then join the LRCC as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, working with Drs. Ann Chambers and Alan Tuck. Bone is a common site for breast cancer metastasis, but little is understood about why breast cancer preferentially spreads to bone. Mira (Rao) Ray will study how breast cancer cells interact with molecules found in bone to lead to growth of the breast cancer in that organ.

 

 

Jason Townson

Jason Townson is a graduate student in the Medical Biophysics Department, University of Western Ontario and the Cancer Research Laboratories of the London Regional Cancer Program, supervised by Drs. Ann Chambers and Ian MacDonald. Breast cancer can lie dormant for many years. Jason is studying mechanisms of dormancy of breast cancer cells in mice, and is investigating possible treatment strategies to attack dormant cancer cells.

 

Jennifer Kirstein

Jennifer Kirstein is a graduate student in the Medical Biophysics Department, University of Western Ontario and the Cancer Research Laboratories of the London Regional Cancer Program, supervised by Drs. Ann Chambers and Ian MacDonald. Her BCSC Studentship will augment her Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Jennifer is studying a drug called aprotinin, which has already been shown to be safe for use in humans, to learn if this drug can prevent seeding of metastatic breast cancer cells in mice at the time of breast cancer surgery.

 

Sara Hamilton

Sara Hamilton is a graduate student in the Biochemistry Department, University of Western Ontario and the Cancer Research Laboratories of the London Regional Cancer Program, supervised by Dr. Eva Turley. Her BCSC Studentship will augment her Canadian Institutes of Health Research University-Industry Studentship, in partnership with Echelon Biosciences Inc. Sara is studying how breast cancer cells interact with the tissue that surrounds them, and how these molecular interactions might be blocked by inhibitors, a strategy that might lead to development of new drugs to fight breast cancer.