Ying He: Awarded Biotechnology Graduate Student Award
On Being Awarded The
Biotechnology Graduate Student Award
For a Second Consecutive Year
For the second consecutive year, Ying He, received the National Biotechnology Conference's
Biotechnology Graduate Student Award from the American Association of
Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Ying's research focuses on the
mechanisms of chronic pain in cancer patients. She received the award for her research on paclitaxel, a drug used in cancer chemotherapy treatments
causes severe pain in patients which can last years after therapy is has ended. "Pain is not merely a symptom, and it is hard to treat," she said. "When a tumor grows and metastasizes to the bone and other tissues,
it causes pain. In addition, many chemotherapy drugs cause pain by
themselves." Early research in animal models suggested cell death may be
responsible for the persistent pain, even when the drug was administered
in low doses.
"This raises the possibility that cellular signaling pathways leading
to paclitaxel-induced pain may be independent of cell death or the
destruction of axons, the building blocks of the nervous system," He
said.