Student cancer researchers are stars at annual health sciences symposium

Three students at Christiana Care’s Center for Translational Cancer Research won awards at the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance annual research symposium in May.

Vignesh Viswanathan, M.Sc., and Swati Pradhan Bhatt, Ph.D., tied for first place with their posters, titled, respectively, “Role of MicroRNA 23b in Colon Cancer Stem Cells” and “Implantable Three-Dimensional Salivary Spheroid Assemblies Demonstrate Fluid and Protein Secretory Responses to Neurotransmitters.”

Seema Bhatlekar, M.Sc., placed second for her poster titled “Role of HOX Genes in Regulation of Stem Cell Populations in Normal and Malignant Colon Tissue.”

Viswanathan and Bhatlekar are performing research as students of Bruce Boman, M.D., Ph.D., MSPH, medical director, Cancer Genetics and Stem Cell Biology at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center. Bhatt is doing research under Robert Witt, M.D., chief of the Graham Cancer Center’s Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Oncology Center.

“These students in the Center for Translational Cancer Research, together with their mentors, are an example of the success that can occur in translational cancer research at Christiana Care, which will benefit future Delawareans,” said Nicholas Petrelli, M.D., Bank of America endowed medical director of the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center.