Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
PhD Project Template
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Use one form per project
Please complete & submit to international@nuigalway.ie as soon as possible, and by 27/11/2012
In your email, begin the subject line with [SWB] (be sure to use square brackets) to ensure that
your email is filed correctly. Emails will be automatically filed
PI name & contact
details:
SANJEEV GUPTA
School:
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Has project been
agreed with head (or
nominee) of proposed
registration school?
Research Centre /
group affiliation:
Y
Research group /
centre website:
http://www.nuigalway.ie/faculties_departments/pathology/research.html
PI website / link to CV:
http://www.nuigalway.ie/faculties_departments/pathology/research.html
DISCIPLINE OF PATHOLOGY
Brief summary of PI research / research group / centre activity (2 or 3 lines max):
If you are already involved in relevant scholarly activities relating to Brazil, please mention them
here.
Br east can cer is a h et er o g en eo u s d isease an d t h is h et er o g en eit y u n d er p in s t h e
o b ser ved var iat io n in o u t co m e an d t r eat m en t r esp o n se f o r w o m en w it h t h e d isease.
It is t h er ef o r e n ecessar y t o id en t if y b io m ar ker s, w h ich p r o vid e p o ssib ilit ies f o r
in d ivid u al t r eat m en t o p t im izat io n . We use a combination of molecular cell biology, miRNA
expression profiling, and miRNA-ISH in TMAs to evalu at e t h e r o les o f m iRNAs a p r o g n o st ic
b io m ar ker s in b r east can cer .
Title & brief description of PhD project (suitable for publication on web):
REGULATION OF DICER EXPRESSION BY ESTROGEN AND ITS ROLE IN RESISTANCE TO ENDOCRINE
THERAPY OF BREAST CANCER
Hormonal therapy is an essential part of the management of patients with estrogen receptor (ERα)positive breast cancer. While about half of patients with advanced ERα-positive disease immediately
fail to respond to tamoxifen, in the responding patients the disease ultimately progresses to a
resistant phenotype. Traditional prognostic factors fail to adequately stratify the patients and ability
to determine which patients will respond to treatment, and those that will not, remains a
challenge.. Our preliminary data shows reduced expression of Dicer in ER-positive human breast
cancer cell lines upon exposure to estrogen. We hypothesize that down-regulation of Dicer
expression by ERα modulates cellular response to anti-estrogens. We propose to determine
whether Dicer down-regulation plays a role in resistance to endocrine therapy and is predictive of
Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
response to endocrine therapy. The main aims of this proposal are (i) to evaluate the regulation of
Dicer expression by estrogen signalling; (ii) determine the effect of Dicer on therapeutic efficacy of
anti-estrogens in breast cancer and (iii) to investigate the association between expression of Dicer
and clinico-pathological parameters in human breast cancer. The results of experiments in this
proposal will delineate the biological and clinical significance of Dicer expression in breast cancer.
Unique selling points of PhD project in NUI Galway:
Studying high-quality science, delivered in a clinically relevant way at School of Medicine, NUI
Galway will enable postgraduate student to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for
a career in academia. We have a flexible structured-PhD program designed to ensure an excellent
PhD experience. The postgraduate programme will provide broad training in the intellectual and
practical basis of translational cancer research. Postgraduate student will interact directly with Dr
Gupta on daily basis. Throughout all the years student will participate in weekly seminars and
presentations at journal clubs. The student is expected to attend at least one international
conference, where he/she will present the results of his/her research to their peers. At the end of
the PhD study, the student will submit and defend a PhD thesis describing his/her original research
carried out during the course of the PhD studies.
Name & contact details for project queries, if different from PI named above:
Sanjeev Gupta, PhD
Discipline of Pathology, School of Medicine
National University of Ireland, Galway
Galway, Ireland . Email: Sanjeev.gupta@nuigalway.ie
Please indicate the graduates of which disciplines that should apply:
Medicine, pharmacy, molecular Biology, biochemistry, microbiology, immunology, physiology, cell
biology and genetics.
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Please indicate the specific programme priority area under which the proposed PhD project fitschoose only one (tick box):
Engineering and other technological areas
Pure and Natural Sciences (e.g. mathematics, physics, chemistry)
Health and Biomedical Sciences
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Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
Aerospace
Pharmaceuticals
Oil, Gas and Coal
Renewable Energy
Minerals
Biotechnology
Nanotechnology and New Materials
Technology of prevention and remediation of natural disasters
Biodiversity and Bioprospection
Marine Sciences
Creative Industry
New technologies in constructive engineering
Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
Please indicate which of the following applies to this project (referring to Science Without Borders
arrangements):
Suitable only as a Full PhD (Y/N): _ _Y__
Available to candidates seeking a Sandwich PhD arrangement (Y/N): _Y__
Suitable for either/Don’t know: _Y___