Dr. Pat Murphy – photo provided
Dr. Pat Murphy, an assistant professor in biology at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), has received a 2023 Emerging Scholar Research Grant from the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) for his research into the role of bioactive metabolites in breast cancer. The grant is valued at $600,000 over five years.
Murphy is exploring ways to unlock the bioactive properties of kynurenine pathway metabolites to design new therapeutic approaches to breast cancer, which still causes over 5,500 deaths in Canada despite modern medicines.
“At this time, the beneficial roles of kynurenine metabolites have not been explored,” he said. “Since they could explain the modest effects seen when blocking kynurenine production, it is critical they be understood. In the short term, this project will be the first of its kind to find out whether bioactive roles of metabolites in breast cancer may inspire better medicines. In the long term, this approach could allow us to re-imagine how metabolites work in cancer biology to reveal new ways to increase patient survival.”
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