Professors involve students in cancer research
By LINDA EVANS
Editor, RichmondNow
Important research often involves a series of small steps conducted over a long period of time.
When it comes to cancer research, some of those steps are being carried out by undergraduate students in two labs on the University campus.
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Students Anastasia Kharlamova, '07, of Pittsburgh, Pa., (l.) and Jackie Knupp,
'06, of Raleigh, N.C., are among several assistants to Dr. John Gupton and Valerie Kish, who are researching prostate and brain cancers. |
John Gupton, professor of chemistry, and Valerie Kish, professor of biology, along with their student research assistants are exploring ways of halting the spread of prostate and brain cancers.
Gupton, a synthetic-organic chemist, describes his group’s work by saying, “Some people build houses; some people build bridges. We build molecules.”
The molecules he and his students build are molecules generated by marine organisms that have been identified as having anti-tumor properties. The Richmond research team generates new chemical reactions for the preparation of such natural products and their analogs and sends them off to collaborators for screening as anti-tumor agents.
This often involves creating intermediate molecules, which themselves are screened for anti-cancer properties.
The work is done in collaboration with researchers at the University of Virginia, VCU Medical Center and the Southwest Research Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas.
The molecules Gupton and his students have worked with seem to have a positive effect on prostate cancer, he says. They also try to understand why the molecules they build have these anti-cancer properties.
This research is “probably the most important academic experience they [student researchers] have, since they work on important scientific questions and have to bring all of their skills and knowledge to the table in order to accomplish something that is significant,” says Gupton.
One of his student researchers, Jonathan Hempel, ’07, says that although lab classes teach all the same methods, conducting real-life research “ingrains the laboratory techniques that are essential to success in any research or other type of work in the field of organic chemistry.”
Melissa Sartin, ’07, aspires to be a physician and says that conducting research with Gupton has proven invaluable. “Research requires precision, focus and discipline,” along with the ability to observe reactions and recognize significant changes of behavior—all qualities needed by a doctor to care for patients.
Kish’s research also has a connection to VCU Medical Center. She spent her 1999 sabbatical there working with Dr. William Broaddus, researching glioblastoma multiforme brain tumors. When she returned to the University, she continued the work, bringing undergraduate students into her lab to assist.
“This is an aggressive tumor that usually comes back even after surgery to remove it,” Kish explains. She and her students are trying to find a way to stop the movement of tumor cells, which often travel to another part of the brain and establish a new tumor.
The tumor’s cells make an enzyme that is secreted into normal tissue and dissolves a path for a tumor cell to migrate to another part of the brain. Kish and her student researchers are studying how to stop these enzymes. As they conduct their research, Kish’s students are learning biochemistry and molecular biology, she said.
“The undergraduate research opportunities at Richmond are fantastic,” says Dave Raiser, ’06, who worked two years in Kish’s lab and spent last summer conducting research at VCU Medical Center.
“I never would have imagined that I would be working with brain cancer before completing an undergraduate degree. My research experiences at Richmond have been some of the most important ones of my college career, and they will undoubtedly give me an edge in a pool of graduate applicants who have not had similar opportunities available to them.”
Most of Kish’s and Gupton’s student researchers work two academic years and one summer with the professors, bringing their projects to fruition in the form of honors projects and presentations at the annual University research symposium. Many also have presented their findings at national and regional meetings of professional societies.
The lab experience “stimulates creativity and imagination,” says Kish. She expects a lot out of her students because they are working independently.
“All students who are interested in research have a curiosity about how the world works. They want to help make that science,” says Kish.
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