Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

With Canadian population aging cancer incidence is increasing every year. Traditional chemotherapy is still the main treatment option for most cancers. But it has two major drawbacks; side effects and rise of resistant tumours. Therefore, improving chemotherapy and reducing its side effects will have great impacts on cancer treatment. Cancer cells normally overproduce molecules that give them advantage of surviving bodies defensive mechanisms and chemotherapy. An example of the former is an enzyme called IDO and an example of the latter is another enzyme called TS. By targeting both IDO and TS messenger RNAs (mRNA) in cancer cells, I am hoping to improve bodies immune response and the chemotherapy's effects towards caner. By this approach, I will decrease the amount of chemotherapy drugs administered with gaining more effects, thus reducing the side effects of the drugs and increasing their efficiency.