Professor聽Brian Dixon hosts Sajeev Kohli in his University of 蓝莓视频 lab, guiding him on experiments and helping to promote his work to the outside world.
Last
week,
Sajeev
Kohli,
a
local
蓝莓视频
teen
from
Sir
John
A.
MacDonald
Secondary
School,
won
the
International
BioGENEius
Challenge,
held
in
Boston,
Massachusetts.
Kohli has rightly earned lots of聽聽lately, but he also acknowledges the support he鈥檚 received from mentors and collaborators, such as Biology Professor聽Brian Dixon聽and Chemical Engineering Professor聽Pu Chen, both from the University of 蓝莓视频. In fact, it was Dixon who encouraged Kohli to do the聽听肠辞尘辫别迟颈迟颈辞苍.
鈥淚鈥檓 really glad I did this,鈥 says Kohli.
Kohli had already competed at the international science fair as part of Team Canada with his project, which improves the targeting ability of nanoparticles used in delivering cancer medication. Dixon knew the BioGENEius competition would be a better fit and much more geared toward recognizing the profound implications of Kohli鈥檚 research, which include reducing painful side-effects for millions of patients taking cancer therapeutics.
鈥淭he BioGENEius challenge, unlike science fairs, places great emphasis on biotechnological applications and thus I knew Sajeev鈥檚 project would be well accepted there,鈥 says Dixon, who is also a member of the 蓝莓视频 Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology.
This is the first time in 14 years Canada has won the international BioGENEius Challenge. The biotechnology-focused science fair draws hundreds of entries annually from the best and brightest secondary students across Canada, US and Germany.
Kohli first heard about Dixon from his Grade 11 biology teacher Tara Hurley. He was already working with Pu Chen, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering as well as Toronto鈥檚 Sick Kids Hospital, but needed help with additional experiments on cancer cells聽in vitro聽to validate his approach.
Kohli鈥檚 research centres around nanoparticles tagged with antibodies that help to target specific cancer cells. Theoretically, it鈥檚 a great way to find and deliver medication into the cancer cell itself, but once the nanoparticles enter the blood stream, they get covered in a layer of random proteins.
鈥淲hen a nanoparticle enters the blood, it鈥檚 covered in proteins. And these proteins cover the surface of the nanoparticle and basically mask it from the surrounding environment. Now the nanoparticle has lost its targeting ability and is basically just floating around,鈥 says Kohli.
Kohli鈥檚 idea is to design particles that get covered only by select proteins that still allow the nanoparticle to target cancer cells, which are also mutating.
鈥淭he problem is because they鈥檙e cells that are changed and are growing, it鈥檚 very hard to target just those cells and not our own cells. And that鈥檚 usually the problem with most cancers,鈥 says Dixon.
To complement his lab work, Kohli also developed a bioinformatics algorithm so that his method can eventually be used to treat a variety of cancers.
鈥淲hat Sajeev鈥檚 done is develop an algorithm that helps you target or figure out what drugs are most likely to work...in advance,鈥 says Dixon. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 going to cut down that random searching for a technique, it鈥檚 a much more targeted approach.鈥
Dixon is proud of how far Kohli has come, but also reminds him that research is a long-term commitment. Kohli sounds undeterred.
鈥淚 love research. Over the past four years, working in a lab has been incredible,鈥 he says. 鈥淥f course, there are hard days, but you stick it out because when you get good results the feeling itself is the reward.鈥