Niamh Mc Namee receives 2020 ISEV Scholarship Award
PhD student Niamh Mc Namee recently received an International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) Scholarship Award at the ISEV Annual Conference held (online) from 20 to 23 July.
Niamh is working under the supervision of Prof. Lorraine O’Driscoll and her research study entitled “Inhibition of extracellular vesicles release in triple-negative breast cancer” had been selected for presentational at the conference, which was to be held in Philadelphia, US, this year. Instead the virtual meeting was held online.
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the breast cancer that typically has the worst prognosis and no targeted treatment options. The O’Driscoll research group had previously established that small bubbles (known as extracellular vesicles, EVs) carrying cargo that are released from TNBC cells contribute to cancer spreading and resistance to anti-cancer drugs.
Niamh’s research has shown that there may be ways of blocking the initial release of the EVs from the TNBC cells, which could subsequently reduce metastasis and prevent drug-resistance developing. More extensive studies are underway to investigate this further.
This research work was supported by a philanthropic donation from Carrick Therapeutics Ltd.