RESEARCH RESOURCE. Tobias Hofving is one of the first doctoral students to receive a Core Facilities’ Student Voucher. Hence, he will receive SEK 5000 to use within the advanced platforms.
The Core Facilities’ Student Voucher investment is a kind of gift card for doctoral students that provides free access to the facilities, for a number of hours. During the fall, a number of new doctoral students submitted their project proposals and Core Facilities chose two winners.
Improved targeted therapy
Tobias Hofving, doctoral student at Sahlgrenska Cancer Center since last year, works with a project to improve the treatment of patients with neuroendocrine tumors. It concerns a targeted treatment using radionuclides that, with the aid of an analog, bind to receptors on the neuroendocrine tumors.
“The treatment is currently used on patients, to a limited extent, but there are side effects and it is not as effective as we would like, as the kidneys sustain damage if the radiation dosage is increased. By screening an inhibitor library in combination with radiation, we have found a protein target, that when it is inhibited, weakens the tumor’s defenses against radiation,” says Tobias whose supervisor is Professor Ola Nilsson from the Department of Pathology.
The object of the project is to make the tumor more susceptible to radioactivity and, in this way, improve the efficacy of treatment in the clinic.”
Right now, Tobias is using his Student Voucher at the Center for Cellular Imaging, CCI Core Facility, where he has access to advanced light microscopy. He wants to confirm that the cells’ surface expresses the receptors research is targeting and, in addition, he wants to study if the tumor cells’ DNA is damaged, to a greater extent, during treatment.
“We use an antibody that binds to the phosphorylated H2AX protein, which is an indication of a double-strand break in the DNA. We want to find out if the treatment causes several such breaks, at several different places, as that destroys the tumor cells,” says Tobias.
Early introduction to Core Facilities
The idea behind the Core Facilities Student Voucher is to introduce researchers to the resources and competencies that are available at Core Facilities, as soon as possible in their research careers.
“Core Facilities provides a fantastic opportunity to enable questions to guide research, without being limited to the competencies and equipment found in your own research group,” explains Carolina Tängemo, Researcher at Core Facilities, and continues,
“Writing an application and a project plan to receive a Student Voucher is a useful experience, when you are a new doctoral student, as it provides an opportunity to discuss your project with others outside the group, who perhaps, can provide new perspectives and possibilities.”
Doctoral student Maria Hallingström also received a Student Voucher, which she is using at the Proteomics Core Facility for her project, where she analyzes biomarkers in premature children. Maria and Tobias each received time comparable to SEK 5000 at Core Facilities.
A new chance to receive a Student Voucher will occur in the fall.
