UNBC Student Wins Award to Continue Cancer Research
Daud Akhtar will continue research – photo courtesy UNBC
Prince George, B.C. – A biochemistry student at UNBC has received an award to continue his cancer research.
Daud Akhtar a fourth-year biochemistry and molecular biology major from Prince George, has received a 2014 BC Cancer Studentship, sponsored by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
The award will allow Akhtar to work with UNBC biochemistry professor Dr. Chow Lee on a research project that will look at cancer on a molecular level with hopes of developing new treatments.
“By looking at cancer from a molecule perspective we are able to have a better understanding of the factors involved in the progression of cancer” says Akhtar. “We can have a more targeted and controlled treatment method with less hazardous side effects associated with other treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation.”
Akhtar is not the first UNBC student to receive this kind of funding. Randi Woodbeck and Sangeun Kim who are now in the Northern Medical Program, Trevor Haines who is a graduate of the Northern Medical Progam and Dustin King who is working towards a PhD at the University of B.C. have all received BC Cancer Studentships .
Comments
Another “good news” story! Nice to see!
Congrats to Daud Akhtar!
Congratulation to the student and his supervisor. For Cancer treatment, long term interdisciplinary research in pathology of cancer is needed by PhD students using biochemistry and computational biology methods and the scope of an undergraduate biochemistry project is limited for that.
At least one PhD proposal with a focus on bioinformatics was blocked in UNBC. Dr Margot Mandy in chemistry was chairing the committee that shut down the PhD proposal.
One hopes the new UNBC president removes the barriers in approval of new PhD programs (especially in CSAM) and will bring new faces into his team who initiate and support more attractive programs.
Hmm.. yes, its amazing what a good education can do for society and the world. Oh well back to denigrating the teachers and underfunding public education ;-)
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