(gentle music)
- Hello, Maria.
Great to have you here.
- Hello, Doro.
Thank you for inviting me.
- Maria, I know that you're working on cancer research.
Can you tell us a little bit more about exactly
what you're trying to figure out?
- Yes, we are working on breast cancer,
and specifically with triple-negative breast cancer subtype,
which is the most aggressive subtype and deadly.
And that's why,
because it lacks specific biomarker and treatments.
So we are working on this direction
to actually fill this gap.
- Sounds like a very important gap that you have to fill.
So one of the things you mentioned, for example,
was treatment for triple-negative breast cancer.
So how are you going about doing that?
- First step on finding treatments is to find the target.
So you can imagine that there are 1,000 of proteins
that characterize cells and cancer cells,
and also modified proteins
that are connected with a disease.
And in order to do that, we have to screen them.
So in order to screen them,
we're using specialized technologies.
It's actually like searching for a needle in the haystack,
but this technologies gives us these answers.
- And so when you find one of these target proteins,
then how do you go about trying
to develop some sort of therapeutic that would modify
how this target protein works in cancer cells?
- So the second step after we identify the target is
to screen for therapeutics
that actually can target this protein
or this modified protein.
So we identified over a few of those,
a tool that worked best for our target,
for triple-negative breast cancer.
And what was very interesting is actually
that one of those was developed for lung cancer.
And we also figured out that when
we use these two compounds in combination,
works better than the monotherapies.
- That's great news, and let's keep our fingers crossed
that that will also be true when they might go
into some trials for human patients, for example.
And is there anything else
that your target is able to help you with
with regards to triple-negative breast cancer?
'Cause you did mention
that it could be used as a biomarker,
which then often can be used either to help diagnose disease
or try to predict how well patients will do
in the future.
Correct. So we identified these target that acts
as a biomarker as well for triple-negative breast cancer.
And that helps both in prognosis and presumably will work
in the future as a marker that helps diagnoses
and also how to monitor the response of the patients
to the therapeutics that we have suggested
or other scientists will suggest.
- Well, that's great potential there,
so keep up the good work.
And what drives you to conduct this type of research?
- So the story and motivation goes back to 2008,
when I graduated from university.
And I worked for one year in an oncology clinic,
where I was interacting with patients.
And I was working the pathology lab
and I was doing the Biomarker screening for them.
That prompt me that I wanted to work more on this,
and that's why I got my masters and PhD.
And then that gave me the opportunity to travel overseas
and come here and actually work as a scientist
in the goal of oncology research.
And that closes a very nice circle for me as a scientist.
- Wow, what a compelling story.
Thanks for sharing that with us,
your hard work and motivation to do what you love to do
and what can really be a rewarding career and help people.
Thanks so much, Maria.
- Thank you, Doro.
(gentle music)