PhD student rewarded for anti-cancer drug research
12 Jul 2007 | Renee Criddle
A PhD researcher in chemistry at the University of Wollongong has begun initial investigations into identifying new arsenic compounds that will one day better assist in treating cancers like leukaemia.
Kristie Munro’s path to assist future cancer sufferers has been rewarded with a $75,000 scholarship over the next three years. The main contributors to the scholarship include the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund, Rotary Club of Orange North and the Ian and Jean Simpson family.
Kristie and her supervisor, Dr Carolyn Dillon, from UOW’s Department of Chemistry, are hopeful that within a decade the pioneering research will result in the development of much more powerful arsenic anti-leukaemia drugs.
“The use of arsenic in the treatment of cancers is not new. For example, arsenic trioxide (marketed as Trisenox) has already had a significant impact on the treatment regime of acute promeylocytic leukaemia,” Kristie said.
She said that arsenic-based drugs have been rapidly increasing in prominence as treatments for other forms of leukaemia and cancers.
Kristie said that her project would explore the interaction of arsenic with the protein, tubulin. Tubulin is currently used as a specific target for anti-cancer drugs like Taxol as the drugs bind to tubulin and inhibit cancerous formations. It is an important target because tubulin is responsible for cell division. Consequently, the aim of the research is to find the right type of arsenic compounds that will bind to tubulin to prevent cell division and hence cancerous growth.
Innovative techniques such as X-ray absorption spectroscopy and correlative micro-X-ray fluorescence-light microscopy will be used to probe arsenic-tubulin binding interactions. She will be undertaking part of these studies in the United States in late July.
“What I am trying to do is identify a new generation of more powerful arsenic anti-leukaemia drugs,” Kristie said.
“I am only at the chemical design stage but I am hopeful that my research will eventually lead to new compounds that can be used in animal and human pre-clinical trials,” she said.
For further information contact Dr Carolyn Dillon on (02) 4221 4930.
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