Funding outcome

It is estimated that 3,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 2,000 women die of this disease in Canada in 2024. Due to the lack of diagnostic tests for early detection, most ovarian cancers are diagnosed at advanced stages when the disease has spread to the abdominal cavity. Unfortunately, current treatment regimens are ineffective against advanced ovarian cancers, highlighting an urgent need for developing novel and more effective therapies for ovarian cancer. To this end, we need to better understand the molecular basis of ovarian cancer and identify the proteins that are critical for the formation and/or progression of ovarian cancer. These proteins are potential therapeutic targets for ovarian cancer treatment. In this project, we will determine the role of a protein called NHP2, which is crucial for a type of RNA modification in ovarian cancer. Our initial analysis and preliminary experiments show that (i) NHP2 expression is higher in ovarian cancer compared to the normal tissues and this elevated expression is associated with shorter overall survival of ovarian cancer patients and (ii) when the expression of NHP2 is experimentally down-regulated, ovarian cancer cells become less aggressive, suggesting that NHP2 plays a role in promoting the formation and/or progression of ovarian cancer. In this summer project, we will characterize the functional role of NHP2 in ovarian cancer using cell culture and animal models, as well as molecular biology approaches, and determine the molecular mechanisms underlying the pro-tumorigenic role of NHP2 in ovarian cancer. This project will determine how NHP2 controls the behavior of ovarian cancer cells and if targeting NHP2 can be a potential treatment option for ovarian cancer. Findings from this project could lead to the discovery of novel therapeutic targets to treat ovarian cancer, which has great potential to improve the clinical outcomes of ovarian cancer patients.