Supervisor:
Program of Study:
Masters, Biomedical Engineering
Project Title:
Elucidating the roles of microbes on immunosurveillance of early lung cancer
Scholarships and/or Awards:
- CGS-M, NSGS
Lay Research Summary:
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer related deaths in Canada. Although more widespread in people 50 or older, cancer can appear earlier in life. Still, generally, our immune system is effective at recognizing and destroying early cancer. The lung environment has unique properties that influence how cancer will progress. One such property is the bacteria present in the lung. Previous studies have shown associations between select bacteria and cancer. The diverse mix of bacteria and microbes found in the lung is known as the lung microbiome, this microbiome is an emerging field of study. Despite the current research, it is unknown if the lung microbiome is involved in altering the cancer-detecting ability of our immune system. In this project, we aim to understand how bacteria affect the ability of our immune cells to properly detect and destroy early cancer in the lung. We will use an engineered system to recreate the lung environment and induce an early tumor event (ETE). This system will use cells harvested from the lung of a mouse with an engineered cancer switch that can turn on the cancer when prompted. These engineered cancer cells will be grown with Natural Killer (NK) immune cells. NK cells are a first line of defence in our body, they search for damaged cells like cancer. Once this cell system is established, we will turn on the cancer promoting systems in the engineered cells to induce an ETE, and then we will observe how the NK cells respond to the ETE. We will then repeat this experiment but with the addition of bacteria commonly found in lungs to see if the NK cell response changes. This engineered lung system will allow for growth and observation of cancer cells, immune cells and bacteria, something that is not currently found in the literature.
Career Aspirations:
Although I still am far from decided on any specific directionality of my future career, generally I could prefer to stay in the field of biomedical research, I could do this by staying in academia or moving to the biotech industry as my degree in biomedical engineering can uniquely prepare me for this transition. I have always been interested in cancer research specifically, so ideally, I would like to research either potential treatments or help develop fundamental research technologies/methodologies that can be used to push the current frontier of cancer research.
Location:
Dalhousie University