PROJECTS
THE TWO FACES OF BUDDHISM
This paper will discuss the story of the ethnic strife between Rohingya Refugees and the Buddhist Myanmar government. In Myanmar, the government has ordered sanctioned killings against the Rohingya minority group. However, this is an issue that has been ongoing for decades. This paper aims to bring light to the underlying causes for the increase in violence in Myanmar, as well as the roots behind the complicated relationships between Buddhism, the Myanmar government, and the Rohingya people.
MICRORNAS AS EARLY GASTRIC CANCER (GC) BIOMARKERS
The harmful effects of gastric cancer can be identified worldwide. This form of cancer must be identified as soon as possible, as early detection significantly improves survival rates. Unfortunately, there are little to no early detection procedures that are cost-efficient and non-invasive. However, the discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs) is slowly changing this. miRNAs are molecules that circulate in your blood and can often predict the presence of a tumor based on whether the molecule is over-expressed or down-regulated. Using this information and a previous gastric cancer miRNA biomarker panel developed by the Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium (SGCC), my project set out to establish the viability of miRNAs as biomarkers by testing the molecules in our lab’s genetically modified cancerous mice model. We selected three of the twelve miRNA molecules from the SGCC’s panel and set out to identify the difference in miRNA levels between gastric cancer mice, healthy mice, and water as our negative control.
RECTAL TUMOROIDS AS A NEW TRANSLATIONALÂ MEDICINE MODELÂ OF RECTAL CANCER
During the summer of 2019, I had the privilege of being accepted into the Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. My research was primarily based on the utilization of tumoroid technology and how it is used in a translational setting.
Colorectal cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death among men and women. However, rectal cancer patients do not have many targeted treatment therapies and often have to resort to less effective, traditional methods. However, the utilization of organoid technology can revolutionize rectal cancer treatment. In this project, I explored the viability of organoids within the lab that were fostered and targeted with various drugs.