Earlier this month Brandon University announced receiving financial support through Research Manitoba of $20,000 to international student, Shamima Anonna, to continue her study on early indicators of breast cancer. Anonna is in the Master of Science (Environmental and Life Sciences) program at BU, working in Dr. Mousumi Majumder’s Breast Cancer Cell & Molecular Research Laboratory (BCCMRL).
With support from Research Manitoba, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and VW International (Avantor), the BCCMRL was unveiled last year, providing Dr. Majumder and her growing team with 1,000 square feet of state-of-the-art research space.
Anonna's project involves studying how microRNAs, tiny molecules that influence protein production in cells, can affect tumors and lead to the spread of breast cancer. By spotting the proteins, the lab team hopes they can become early indicators of cancer and lead to targeted therapies that could curb its spread.
Brandon University Marketing Communications Officer, Rob Henderson says this funding announcement from Research Manitoba, and the work that Dr. Majumder and Anonna with their team at BU is doing is very important, game-changing research.
"What Anonna is looking for is finding these proteins in the blood, and these have been recognized as being present in cases of cancer," explains Henderson. "So, there are a couple of things they can do with these proteins. They can see how these proteins affect the cell. These proteins can impact how the cells change, the way cancer can develop."
Henderson says there are a number of things that are relevant in this research as it can become a way to screen for breast cancer, much like how prostate cancer is screened through a blood test.
"If they can just learn a little bit more about how this whole process works, to better understand what's going on in the body with cancer," he shares. "The hope is that these proteins can actually be used as a biomarker. And what that means is they can do a blood test and if they see the presence of these proteins then ... there is the possibility that cancer could be there."
The importance of that is that cancer can be detected much earlier and in a much less invasive way than currently through biopsies, thus this research can be used to target treatment.
"It is work that has the potential to affect a lot of different areas of spotting and actually treating cancer as well," he adds.