Even windblown she was beautiful
As promised, from time to time I am going to “profile” a
young cancer researcher; specifically, those that have received a grant from
the Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research. To kick off the series we consider Dr.
Brigitte Theriault, Ph.D.
Dr. Theriault currently works for the University Health
Network, in Ontario, Canada. She earned
her Ph.D. from Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, in 2007 at – judging from her
recent youthful photo – about the age of
16. She later Post Doc’d at the University
of Toronto. She has published 13 papers
on ovarian cancer in the last few years, received several awards (including
ours – MRC) and helped organize an
important conference on ovarian cancer. It
should give us confidence in the eventual extinction of ovarian cancer that
people like Brigitte Theriault are on the job.
I would like to give you the biochemical lowdown on Dr.
Theriault’s work, but – quite frankly – I don’t understand it. Instead, I will quote from two documents
describing her research – documents that quite obviously are not meant
for the likes of me.
"Her efforts focused on studying how
differential regulation of autocrine transforming growth factor beta
(TGFβ)/bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) superfamily signalling between ovarian
cancer and normal ovarian surface epithelial cells regulates cellular processes
such as proliferation, adhesion and migration".
This from her Ph,.D. work in Halifax.
And this, from the MRC citation:
Brigitte Thériault, PhD
Ontario Cancer Institute
Modulation of KIF14
overexpression in ovarian cancer
Dr. Thériault's lab had previously discovered that the gene
KIF14 is present in high amounts in the majority of ovarian cancers, and that
patients with high KIF14 have much worse survival than patients with low KIF14.
KIF14 is normally found in cells that are growing and dividing and is usually
not found in adult human tissues. Her prior research in cell cultures and in
animal models has shown that accumulation of KIF14 leads to tumor spread and
blocking KIF14 causes tumor cell death. Dr. Thériault's goal in this project is
to understand how tumors accumulate such high amounts of KIF14 so that she can
find ways to block KIF14 production, stop tumor cell growth, and improve the
survival of ovarian cancer patients. (The italics are mine. I am pleased when a cancer researcher relly wants to get at the basic science - to understand something.)
All I can say is that, although I may not understand what she’s
doing I can tell she is dedicated and smart smart – and I wish her Godspeed.
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