Katharine’s Undergraduate Summer Bursary in Endothelial Cells
Katharine Williams, a Biomedicine student, undertook a Big C funded 8-week undergraduate summer project in Dr Stephen Robinson’s group based at the Quadram Institute Biosciences, Norwich.
Her project investigated how neuropilin-1 (NRP1) and neuropilin-2 (NRP2) work together in endothelial cells to regulate signalling responses to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in terms of tumour growth.
The research
In order for a tumour to grow it needs plenty of nutrition, which it can obtain from the blood in the blood vessels. Tumours can promote angiogenesis (blood vessel formation) to benefit them. To observe these changes on a cellular level endothelial cells, cells that line blood vessels, are used.
Therefore, Katharine investigated the angiogenic signalling pathways downstream of the two receptors (found on endothelial cells) by using a multitude of techniques. This ranged from cell culture to Western Blot analysis (a laboratory technique used to detect a specific protein in a blood or tissue sample).
Through her studentship, she identified NRP2 (one of the receptors on endothelial cells) directly affects Paxillin, a protein involved in cell adhesion. The depletion of NRP2 alters these proteins reducing the vessels efficacy as it becomes leakier.
In a nutshell, these findings show that understanding this mechanism can help target tumour angiogenesis, reducing its growth.
Personal Experience
Katharine higlighted the importance of developing ‘the key skills and expertise that are important in a research lab‘.
She also explained that she ‘wanted to gain a greater insight into what research looks like and better understanding of the whole process‘.
She was particularly interested in the importance of angiogenesis in tumour development and how ECs drive and impact angiogenesis and thus tumour growth.
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