Garnis Lab Graduate Student: Sara Maclellan
The Garnis Lab happily welcomes Sara Maclellan as a new graduate student. She comes to us direct from Nova Scotia (St. Francis Xavier University). Sara is already hard at work in the lab, learning the skills she’ll need to pursue her independent research studies going forward. We’ll add an update on her specific project in the near future.
Glad to see you in the fray Sara!
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UPDATE (Sara’s research interests):
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. The poor survival rates among lung cancer patients are due to the frequent diagnosis of late stage (i.e. inoperable) disease. Because early stage lung cancers are more treatable, the development of a screening program for high risk individuals could drastically increase the survival rates of lung cancer patients. To develop a screening program, reliable biomarkers that can easily be detected are required.
MicroRNAs are small, non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression. Some microRNAs have already been shown to be involved in many oncogenic processes and recent studies have shown that microRNAs are stably expressed in human serum and plasma samples. My current research focuses on examining the usefulness of microRNAs circulating in blood (serum or plasma) as biomarkers for either early detection of lung cancer or assessment of tumor progression likelihood. If such blood biomarkers can be identified, they will aid significantly in the diagnosis and management of lung cancer.
