Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Breast carcinoma comprises nearly 23% of all cancers in women. Many rapidly growing areas of molecular biology hold promise for developing new treatments against this disease. In particular, the emergence of microRNAs (miRNAs)as multiple gene modulators has revealed the potential for new therapeutic agents. By generating constructs called miR-GLUE(miRNA interacting RNA - generating large unoriginal enchainment), microRNA function has shown to be inhibited. Specifically, miR-GLUE-378 was designed to arrest miR-378, which appears to be an oncogenic miRNA. MiR-378 is highly expressed in human breast carcinoma, having been shown to enhance breast cancer cell growth and survival. It is hypothesized that miR-GLUE-378 will up-regulate arrest miR-378 functions, inhibiting tumor growth. The roles of miR-378 and miR-GLUE-378 in cell survival, self-renewal, and tumor formation will be examined. The effects of miR-378 and miR-GLUE-378 on the expression of other genes will also be tested. The field of microRNA research holds tremendous promise for the treatment of breast cancer, a prevalent illness in today's society. Although this project is designed as a two-year Master's thesis, it can further developed by incorporating clinical studies to validate the significance of the work.